A Hero Begins
by lego my ego
Summary: My first story. Naruto is banished at the end of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Now its 12 years later and the Akatsuki are on the move again. Only this time Naruto is lacking something.
1. Chapter 1

Lonesome Road

He lost it all that day. He lost his friends, his crush, his home, his life, and his dream. He just slogged through the rain. Going in some unknown direction, some unknown designation.

-Flashback-

Naruto sat waiting for the inevitable to happen to him. He knew it would come to this. The council banishing him from Konohagakure no Sato. He had no chance, his only allies were Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Iruka and only Jiraiya and Tsunade had any real pull with the council. His other teacher, Kakashi, was no where to be seen.

"The only way for Naruto, is banishment. You saw the mission report. He lost control and allowed the Kyuubi to escape. Not only that, he used deadly force against Sasuke Uchiha. For the safety of the village, he must be killed or exiled. I think I speak for the rest of the council when I say lets banish Naruto Uzumaki. Are there any objections?" Koharu said.

"Yeah I have an objection. He did nothing wrong. He brought back the Uchiha and denied Orochimaru the Sharingan and you're rewarding him with banishment? How is that fair?!" Jiraiya yelled.

"You can't do this, as the Godiame Hokage, I can over rule you." Tsunade said.

"I'm sorry Tsunade. But even you can't go against the majority of the Council." Danzo said. "The Daimyo gave us these laws to check the Hokage's powers. There is nothing you can do."

"I think it's decided. Naruto Uzumaki. Do you have anything to say?" Homura said.

"I have nothing to say to you." Naruto growled.

"Naruto." Iruka said in a warning voice.

"His anger is unchecked. He could easily fall victim to the fox and kill us all." A Shinobi councilman said.

Tsunade was about to retort, but was cut off by Koharu. "We're sorry Tsunade, but this is the only way." She turned to Naruto. "Naruto Uzumaki, you are hear-by stripped of your rank of Genin and banished from the Konoha. If you attempt to return after a one week period. You will be put to death."

-Present-

So Naruto kept on walking. Eventually he stopped and realized he was in the Land of Waves. It didn't take him long to find Tazuna's house.

"Naruto" Tsunami said. "God Naruto you look awful. What happened…" She was cut off has Naruto collapsed into her arms crying. Leaving her and Inari to wonder what happened to him.


	2. Chapter 2

12 Years Later

Twelve years had passed since Naruto had been banished. Tsunade was still Hokage, but she was now looking for a replacement. Right now she was on top of the Hokage building wondering who she should pick when an ANBU agent appeared right behind her.

"Tsunade-sama we have a problem. The Fire Temple was attacked yesterday by the Akatsuki." An ANBU agent said. "We have one survivor. He is here to see you."

That got Tsunade attention fast. She was still determined to protect Naruto still and this was one way to do it. By eliminating the Akatsuki.

"Very well, send him in" Tsunade said as she returned to her office.

Shizune was there. She was one of the few people Tsunade still tolerated after all these years.

"So let's hear it. What happened at the Fire Temple? Tsunade demanded.

"Tsunade-sama, two members of the Akatsuki appeared yesterday. They destroyed the doors of the Fire Temple with ease. As you know those doors take a massive power to breach. They then attacked Chiriku and…" The monk stopped; he was close to breaking down from grieve.

"I am sorry to hear for your loss, but I need to know what happened next. It's very important to the Fire Country's safety." Tsunade said. And Naruto's Tsunade thought. "I need to hear this and I need to hear this now! Do you understand!? Tsunade shouted.

"Tsunade! Can't you see this man has been through something terrible? Please, calm yourself." Shizune said.

Tsunade was about to reprimand Shizune when the Monk spoke up.

"No. I am sorry. I know I need to finish telling you about this." The monk said. "As I was saying the Akatsuki attacked Chiriku and even after Chiriku used Welcoming Approach: Thousand-Armed Murder on the intruders. He was still easily overpowered by one of the Akatsuki and killed." The monk said.

"I see." Tsunade said. "Can you tell me what they looked like? What weapons they used and where there heading next? Anything you know may save lives the next time we fight them."

"One of them has silver hair and purple eyes. His name was Hidan and he used a massive triple bladed scythe. I did not get to see all of his abilities, but he was very strong". The monk said. "The other one had a cowl on and had green eyes. He did not join in the fight." The monk paused. "That is all I know."

Tsunade was silent for a moment, thinking about what to do.

"Shizune!" Tsunade shouted. "Get the Nijyuu Shoutai ready. We cannot let those two Akatsuki escape the Fire Country. Tell them to meet me on the roof immediately."

-2 Hours Later-

Eighty Shinobi were on top of the Hokage palace. All of them were listening attentively to the Hokage. The briefing wasn't that long, but by the end everyone was itching to get out there and find the Akatsuki.

"…and that is all. Two Akatsuki have infiltrated the Fire country and you will deal with them. Try and capture them, but if you can't eradicate them. Find them no matter what. Are there any questions? Tsunade said. Asuma raised his hand. "Yes Asuma."

"Yes, one of the monks there, Chiriku, is there any word on him?" Asuma asked.

Tsunade was silent. The monk however said. "Chiriku-sama was killed by the Akatsuki."

Asuma looked alarmed, worried even, but then he took on a look of resolve.

"Are there any further questions? Good dismissed!" Tsunade shouted, as the ninja dashed off.

"I need a drink Shizune." Tsunade murmured.

Elsewhere in the village, four ninja stood, ready to commence the mission.

"Alright everybody we'll start at the fire temple and work our way from there." Asuma said. "Lets move out!"

-Somewhere in the Fire Country-

"Kakuzu, this place smells like shit. I'm going outside." Hidan said.

Kakuzu was silent as Hidan stepped outside. He than began counting the money for the bounty of Chiriku.

-Outside-

"Man this place suck. Now I smell like shit." Hidan thought. Hidan than noticed something around him and he looked around. "Hey what took you so long Kakuzu?" Hidan asked turning around and stopped.  
"You're not Kakuzu."


	3. Chapter 3

-10 minutes earlier-

On a lonely dusty road in the Fire Country, one man was completely lost. He had a brown coat on with a twenty-one on the back, almost brushing the ground. A scarf covered his face and a round fedora on top of his head. The last time he was here was twelve years ago. It was Naruto Uzumaki's return to the Fire Country. Although he knew he couldn't flaunt his name or show his face in this region, and also knowing he would return back West soon once this job was done, it was still a bittersweet homecoming.

'It's been a long time since I've been here.' Naruto thought. 'But no time for nostalgia I've got to get to the Waterfall village' He checked his map and tried to find the road he was on. 'Damn I'm completely lost.' He thought as he put away the map. "Well only way is forward I guess." Naruto said aloud. He resumed his walk. A few minutes later he saw a building up ahead. 'Maybe someone will have a clue to where I'm at.' He began to approach the building and was about to call out when the man sitting down said.

"Man this place suck. Now I smell like shit." Hidan said. Hidan than noticed someone around him and he looked around. "Hey what took you so long Kakuzu?" Hidan asked turning around to face his partner and stopped. "You're not Kakuzu."

"Yeah I'm not." Naruto said as he took in the man's appearance. The man was wearing a black cloak with red clouds. 'Red clouds.' Naruto thought. 'Where have I seen that before? Eh, probably not important.' Naruto thought. "Anyway, would you happen to know which way the Waterfall village is? I got a package to deliver and I'm running a little late. I haven't been around here for a while and I'm kind of lost." Naruto said. 'Where have I seen that coat?' He thought.

The man grinned. "Well boredom solved. I'm waiting for my partner and looks like I get to kill you while I wait." He said. "Prepare to meet Jashin dumbass." As he readied his scythe.

"Whoa what the fuck! All I asked for was directions!" Naruto shouted as he reached into his coat, feeling for a weapon. He pulled out a Kunai knife and prepared to run.

Hidan sneered. "You think I give a fuck. Die asshole!" Hidan than threw his scythe at Naruto and just before Naruto jumped out of the way, 2 kunai knives were thrown from the side, knocking away the scythe.

Naruto turned and froze. Before him stood an old Sensei, Asuma, who then shouted. "Hey! Move it!" Naruto quickly jumped back and saw Hidan frozen in place with 2 other Shinobi rushing him with 2 swords. Naruto got a glimpse of another familiar face, Shikamaru, standing on top of the building. He turned back around to face Hidan and saw him with 2 swords run through him. Naruto heard Shikamaru say "One down."

"That's it, he's down" Izumo said looking relieved.

"Ouch man." Hidan said. "Who the hell are you guys?" A stunned silence fell on the other five standing there.

"What the hell" Kotetsu began. "Is he immortal?" Kotetsu said in horror.

"What was your first clue" Hidan said. He then noticed Asuma's sash. "Oh, shit. You're just like the other guy. So what are you here for?"

"Damn, we were hoping to get rid of you quickly and capture your partner for interrogation." Asuma growled. "Speaking of which, where is your partner?"

"Right over there." Hidan said lazily. "Jeez, what took so long Kakuzu?" Just s Kakuzu smashed half of the building where Shikamaru was standing a moment ago.

"Guys, fall back and form up on me!" Asuma shouted as he jumped in front of Shikamaru.

"Right!" Kotetsu and Izumo shouted, jumping to Shikamaru as well.

"You there!" Asuma shouted at Naruto. "If you can fight, help us. If not, get out of here. We don't need you getting in the way."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah I'll give you guys a hand. I'm not much of a fighter, but I'll back you guys up." Naruto faced the Akatsuki duo. "So, who are these guys? I think I've seen someone like them, but I can't remember very well."

"There criminals in an organization called the Akatsuki. These two are very dangerous. Don't let your guard down." Kotetsu shouted at Naruto. "Don't let your guard down; their very powerful."

"Hidan, you really struck the jackpot today. That one with the sash, make sure his body is recognizable afterwards." Kakuzu said as he sized up the opponents. "I'll take out the other four."

"Hell no Kakuzu!" Hidan shouted "Their part of my ritual. You can have your damn money after I'm through with them all. Just don't intervene." He said, as he readied his scythe.

"Fine, just don't let your guard down. You'll die." Kakuzu said.

The others looked on in silence. "Listen, this is what we'll do." Asuma began. "Stranger, you and Izumo will stay back and guard Shikamaru. Kotetsu and I will take out the other one." Asuma looked perplexed as he finished his plan just as Hidan finished drawing his symbol on the ground.

"Just call me Arata" Naruto said. "You guys will need all the help you can get with this guy."

"Sir, don't you think it's kinda risky? Even with two of us, that guy outclasses us by a lot. Maybe we should retreat for now and wait for backup? Izumo suggested.

"That won't work. They'll surly pursue us." Asuma said. "No, this is are best bet, and it's a poor one at that, but we'll do what's necessary to protect the Leaf." Asuma finished.

"Damn, that hurt you bastards." Hidan said as he removed the two swords from his body. "Divine judgment awaits you assholes."

"Asuma-sensei, Kotetsu, don't wind up as some sacrifice, okay." Shikamaru said.

"Don't worry; I've got you backing us up." Asuma said. "Alright here we go!" Asuma dashed forward and threw a knife at Hidan. Kotetsu dashed right and prepared a ball and chain. Hidan jumped out of the way of Asuma's knife, just as Shikamaru's shadows spread out and tried to spear Hidan. Kotetsu moved into smash Hidan, when Hidan than threw one of the swords at Asuma and narrowly missed being flattened by Kotetsu. Asuma than broke it off with his wind empowered trench knives, when Hidan threw his scythe at Asuma.

"Asuma- Taichou! Izumo shouted as Asuma got nicked with the scythe. Kotetsu stopped for a moment and then got nailed with Hidan's fist.

"Bitch, stay down!" Hidan shouted triumphantly. Just than, he brought his scythe up to his mouth and licked it, tasting the blood.

Naruto, who was standing quietly, said "Did he just taste your teacher's blood?" He said in disbelieve.

"These Akatsuki guys are insane. One of my friends claimed to have seen an Akatsuki member and said he looked like a plant." Izumo said. "Not only that, but one of them is from the Uchiha clan. He murdered his entire clan in one night. His younger brother is obsessed with killing him now."

Then it hit Naruto. 'Now I remember, the Akatsuki are after me. Well, not now, but Itachi Uchiha is.' Naruto thought. 'It's been so long since I've been here. I've forgotten them.' He turned his attention back to the fight. 'Maybe I should help out more.' What happened next shocked the other three. Asuma had just preformed a fire Jutsu and Hidan had walked purposely into it. "What did he just do?!" Naruto shouted in alarm.

Asuma suddenly winched in pain and suspended the Jutsu, clutching his arm. He looked forward waiting for the smoke to clear and wondering what had hit his right arm. 'Was it his partner?' Asuma wondered. 'Or did he get me earlier'

What happened next sent shivers down everyone's spines, well, except Kotetsu, he was still out cold. In Hidan's place, stood a skeleton figure. "Hurts, uh" Hidan said as he lifted his face and showed his face to Asuma. "Divine judgment has been passed."

Asuma grunted from the pain in his arm. 'What happened? Is this is Jutsu?' Asuma thought. 'No, this isn't it. It's something else.'

"Asuma!" Izumo shouted. "Are you all right?"

"It's too late for you now. You've already fallen victim to my curse." Hidan said. "So come on! Let's have some fun while we suffer together!" He shouted. "With my preparations complete, you'll be in so much pain!"

Asuma dashed forward… and fell forward groaning in pain as Hidan stabbed himself in the leg. "Asuma-sensei! Are you alright?"

"Hurts doesn't it?" Hidan said. "Don't worry, more pain is on the way!"

"Asuma is holding his left leg." Naruto said. "What's happening?"

"Yeah, and that other guy stabbed himself in the same leg," Izumo said. "but what does it mean?"

Shikamaru looked at Hidan and tried to figure out the attack. 'What does this mean? Asuma is sharing the same damage that other guy has, but how?' Shikamaru thought.

"So do you want me to end it now or do you want to suffer a little more?" Hidan asked sadistically.

"Hey stop his movements Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted.

"Got it!" Shikamaru yelled as his shadows dashed forward.

"Too late!" Hidan screamed as he brought his spear down. "Damn it!"

"That bought us some time," Izumo said. "can you think of something, Shikamaru?"

"We can't kill him yet, or your sensei will die." Naruto stated. "Damn, what's his secret? Also his partner looks like he may join in."

Shikamaru glanced at the other Akatsuki. "Yeah, but we have to prevent that one from killing our leader first." He stated. "Then we'll worry about him." Shikamaru went back to staring at Hidan.

Then he realized it! "Guys, I learned what we need to do." Shikamaru said. "I need to move him out of the circle that's how he's controlling what happens to Asuma. Hopefully the curse will lift off of him."

Naruto looked unimpressed. "How's he trigger the curse though. These kind of Jutsus need something of the victim to work effectively. What does he have of your leader?" Naruto challenged.

Izumo shot Naruto a look. "It's his blood and I don't see you coming up with anything." Izumo said. "No, this is our best bet."

"Not arguing with you there, but still. It seems far-fetched to me." Naruto stated. "I mean, I've never seen something like this and I doubt you have." Naruto finished.

"Not only that, did you notice the circle? He moved straight into that. He must have to be in it for the curse to work." Shikamaru added. "I'll pull him out using my Kage Kubi Shibari and then we'll kill him."

Naruto stared 'He's still pretty smart.' Naruto thought. "Just make sure the Jutsu is gone before killing him." Naruto said.

"Yeah" Izumo said. "We better keep an eye out for the other guy too."

"Alright, he's out of the circle." Asuma said. "Let's test this out." Asuma threw a trench knife at Hidan's ear and when nothing happened. He smirked. "Alright, time for you to die!"

"Oh, shit. Hey Kakuzu! Help me!" Hidan panicked as Asuma limped forward with his trench knives. "Hey, move asshole!"

"Didn't I tell you not to let your guard down." Kakuzu said in an amusing voice. Just then, Asuma cut off Hidan's head off.

Shikamaru sighed as he released his jutsu. "He got him!" Naruto shouted. Just then Shikamaru collapsed.

"You okay Shikamaru?" Izumo asked.

"Just one left." Asuma said while panting. "Izumo, get Kotetsu and get him moving. We'll need his help for the last guy."

"You know if you wanted my help you should have asked earlier." Kakuzu said amusingly. "Now look at you."

"Hey go fuck yourself Kakuzu! You did that on purpose!" Hidan said accusingly.

"Don't blame me. Besides, do you really think this is a good time for you to be shouting at me like that?" Kakuzu said. "Also, if I remember correctly, you specifically said to interfere. Didn't you?

A stunned silence descended on the Konoha Shinobi and Naruto. "How the hell is he still alive?" Naruto said in disbelief.

Hidan laughed. "Alright you got me there, but still. Can you give me a hand getting me together?" Hidan said. "In case you didn't notice, I'm in pieces right now."

Kotetsu woke up seeing a head arguing with someone. "Okay, what the hell happened Izumo." Kotetsu asked in horror.

"Asuma cut that guy's head off and we need to stop the other one right now." Izumo said. "Shikamaru is exhausted and Asuma is gravely wounded. It's just us and Arata and it's not looking good."

They turned their attention back to the Akatsuki. "Damn, that hurts Kakuzu!" Hidan shouted as Kakuzu picked up his head.

"If you're going to complain about pain, complain about your neck." Kakuzu said. "I've never seen a decapitated head so talkative."

"Fuck you Kakuzu and fuck you guy. Do you know how much this hurts!? Hidan howled.

"I can't believe he's still alive." Naruto said. He turned to Shikamaru. Do you have any plans? We could use one right about now."

"Not yet, but at least he can't do anything with his head detached from his head." Shikamaru said. "We may get a chance to retreat and wait for back-up now. Right now that looks like our only option."

"You wish." Kakuzu said sinisterly as he raced forward and kicked Asuma back.

Asuma smashed into the ground, groaning in pain. "Asuma!" Kotetsu, Izumo, and Shikamaru shouted together.

Kakuzu leaned over Hidan's body and began reattaching his head. "I'm now involved in this fight. Take out the bounty. I'll kill the other four." Kakuzu said.

"Ahh, okay. Just hurry up." Hidan said.

"Hurry up? You've dragged this fight on forever. Don't tell me to hurry up. Kakuzu said impatiently.

Everyone else looked on in horror. "He reattached his head." Naruto said. "Now what, were right back to where we started."

"Izumo!" Kotetsu said. "Let's go!"

"Right!" Izumo shouted. "Arata, stay back and protect Shikamaru."

Izumo summoned a giant weapon and rushed forward. Kotetsu spat out a water jutsu and followed Izumo. "Good. Come at me." Kakuzu said.

Kakuzu looked up and realized he was stuck in the water. "Die!" Izumo shouted as he leaped forward. Before the blow could connect, Kakuzu's hands shot out from his body and grabbed the two Shinobi by the necks.

"I don't think so." Kakuzu said. Then he froze as he saw Naruto jump forward and throw Izumo's weapon at Kakuzu. "Shit!" Kakuzu said and released the two Konoha ninja and grabbed the weapon.

Asuma got up and attacked Hidan again. Hidan dodged the attack and got his scythe to go around and attack Asuma from behind. "Asuma!" Shikamaru yelled. "Look out!"

Asuma dodged the attack just in time and smirked. "I won't fall for the same trick twice." He said. Then his eyes shot open in pain and he collapsed.

Hidan laughed. "You idiot! It's not the same!" He shouted.

"Shit" Izumo said. "Where is the back-up. They should be here by now."

Shikamaru dashed forward in some vain attempt to save Asuma. "You should look around before attacking." Kakuzu said as he went to punch Shikamaru. Only to be stopped by something else. "What the hell?" Kakuzu said as crows descended on the battle blocking everyone's view.

"You alright Shikamaru?" Choji asked. He was stopping Kakuzu's attack with both his hands and was still struggling with Kakuzu.

"We've come to help, Shikamaru." Ino said.

Just then Raido attacked Kakuzu with a blade, but the sword didn't even put a scratch on him. "You'll have to do better than that of you're gonna kill me." Kakuzu said as he jumped besides Hidan.

"Alright! Kakuzu let's waste these assholes!" Hidan shouted. Hidan began to twirl his scythe.

On the roof Choji and Ino dropped Shikamaru and Asuma off. Shikamaru checked for Asuma's heartbeat. "Ino he's still alive! Choji, Ino bring Asuma to the hospital! Go now!" Shikamaru shouted.

Kakuzu landed right in front of them. "You're not taking my bounty away." He said.

Naruto and Aoba both landed in front of him. "We'll hold him off. You get to the hospital." Aoba ordered. "Stranger, I hope you know how to fight.

"A little bit, by the way my names Arata." Naruto said. All of a sudden Kakuzu leaped back to Hidan.

"Hidan, leader is calling us. It's time to go." Kakuzu said.

"Come on just a little longer?!" Hidan shouted. He turned towards the Konoha Shinobi. "This isn't over. We'll be back to finish the job later."

The two vanished. "Stay on your guard this might be a trick!" Raido shouted.

"No their gone." Naruto said simply. "They have no reason to trick us. Their both far stronger then any of us here."

Back on the roof. "Ino, heal Asuma, he can still make it!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Forget it Ino. I'm dying; even you guys can see that." Asuma whispered.

"No, don't talk like that Sensei." Ino said. As she said that her face took on a face of despair. 'Four vital points are hit. There's nothing I can do.' Ino thought miserably.

"Guy's these are Asuma-sensei's last words. Let's listen, okay." Shikamaru said.

Asuma rasped out his final words for each of his students. "Okay Shikamaru, I'm counting on you. Now just one last drag before going on." Asuma said as he drew his last breath and died.

"A worthy end for a ninja." Aoba said silently.

Shikamaru picked up Asuma's cigarettes. "You know, I don't like smoking." Shikamaru said. "But right now it feels right." He said as tears ran down his face.

"Good-bye Asuma-Sensei" Choji said. Like Shikamaru, tears were running down his face too.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment in honor of Asuma. "Guys, I hate to say this, but I think we need to move back to Konoha immediately. We don't know when they'll come back." Aoba said. Aoba turned to Izumo and Kotetsu. "You two look around this building and see if there is anything useful. Report back if there is." Aoba ordered.

Izumo and Kotetsu nodded. "Yes sir." They said together. They then turned to Naruto "Arata, thank you for helping us."

Naruto looked at them. "No problem. Sorry this had to happen." Naruto said. "By the way, I hate to ask this, but do you know which way the Waterfall village is?

"I'll show him." Raido said. "You guys search the building. I'll show him on the map how to get to the Waterfall village."

Naruto turned to Raido. "Thanks. The faster I can get there the better." Naruto said. Naruto turned towards Team 10. "I'm sorry for your loss. Good luck out there." Naruto said.

Shikamaru glanced at Naruto. "Thanks Arata. Good luck getting to the Waterfall village."

Naruto nodded. "Thanks. I'll see you around." Then Naruto jumped down to the road and began towards the Waterfall village.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Naruto reached the Waterfall village after a 3 day journey, just when the sun began to set. Right now he was digging through his pockets looking for his I.D to get in the village. He found just as he reached the guard post.

"Excuse me, sir. I'll need your papers." The Waterfall guard said.

Naruto handed the guard the papers. "Here you go. By the way, what's with the security? Last time I was here it was a lot more lax." Naruto said. "Did something happen?"

The guard looked over Naruto's papers. "Oh, there's been another scare. Somebody in the Lightning country thinks those Akatsuki guys are on the move." The guard said. "I wouldn't worry too much. Same thing happened a couple years ago. The Raikage blew some smoke and got everybody riled up. Then nothing happened. Same thing, different day, I'd say." The guard concluded as he handed back Naruto's papers.

Naruto accepted the papers. "Alright, thanks for the heads up." Naruto said and walked off to find an inn.

"Alright, see you around the village Arata Jinsei" The guard said.

Naruto walked on and stopped once he found an inn, The Blue Moon. 'Looks like a nice place.' Naruto thought as he stepped inside.

"Hello. How can I help you?" The owner asked.

"Yeah, can I have a room? I just need it for tonight and maybe tomorrow night." Naruto said.

"Yes sir, I can do that." The owner said. "Would you like any food or anything? My wife in the back makes great soup. You should try it."

"Yeah I could use some grub. By the way, would you know where a Enkai Kagura is? I'm looking for her." Naruto asked.

The owner's eyes narrowed. "Oh, so you're with her lot. Well, I should have known. Your room is right over there and the soup will be 10 yen. Now, get out of here before my Inn attracts anymore people like you." The owner snarled.

Naruto shrugged, he'd seen worse reactions when people figured out what business he was doing right now. "Alright, thanks anyway." Naruto said as he walked over to his room and closed the door behind him.

-The next morning-

Naruto strolled out of the inn and began looking for Enkai Kagura. He strolled down to the lesser traveled parts of the town. After a little searching, he found her standing behind a stall. "Are you Enkai Kagura?" Naruto asked.

The woman glanced at him. "Maybe, what do you want?" Enkai asked.

"A mutual friend sent me. He told me to seek you out. Is Jirou around?" Naruto asked.

Enkai smiled. "You must be Arata. Follow me." She said turning around. "Let's go inside." She pulled out a key and opened a door behind her.

"Alright. So do you know what where doing?" Naruto asked.

Enkai opened another door and began climbing some steps up to the second floor. "You don't know anything about this job? Well I won't hold it against you because I don't either." They continued up the stairs in silence, until the reached the third story. "Here we are." Enkai said.

A man was sitting behind the next when he looked up and saw the duo. "You must be Arata. I take it you have the message." Jirou said. "You're a little late, but that's fine. No harm done. Now show me the message."

Naruto reached into his pocket and withdrew an envelope. "Here you go." Naruto said. "I take it you understand what's going on. Doshin wasn't very clear when he told me about this."

Jirou nodded. "Yeah he's a little paranoid. I don't like to do business with him, but he has a lot of contacts." Jirou said while reading the papers. "He also just gave us a big opportunity. Are you familiar with the lighting country at all?" Jirou asked.

Naruto shook his head. "Only the southern part of the country. So is that where we're heading? Naruto asked curiously.

Jirou nodded. "Yep. Ms. Kagura, you'll stay here and watch the building. Arata and I will head out to the Lighting Country. Make sure everything runs smoothly and make sure the Han twins don't get into anymore trouble." Jirou turned to Naruto. "How soon can you be ready to go?"

"I'm ready when you are. If you want I can begin heading there now, but I need to know what and where were going." Naruto said.

Jirou nodded. "Yeah, splitting up would be better and what were doing, is robbing the Kumogakure military."

-3 days later-

"Good, you made it." Jirou said. "Any trouble getting here?" He asked.

"None." Naruto said. "So what's the plan?" Naruto asked.

"Well, take a seat first." Jirou said motioning to the seat in front of him. "We can't fight these guys head on. There are about 6 of them. All guarding some of the best steel Kumogakure has to offer. Now, one guy here, a man named Jin, has been scoping out the area for the past two weeks. He'll be here soon." Jirou glanced up. "Here he is now."

Jin sat down besides Naruto. He was a little fat man with short black hair. "Mr. Jirou and Arata right? Pleasure meeting you both." Jin said.

"Just telling Mr. Arata about the job." Jirou said. "Now, Jin, have you figured out anything? They might move the weapons soon. So we need to move." Jirou said.

"I think the best bet would be to distract the guards and move in." Naruto said. He turned towards Jin. "Jin, do you know if there strong ninja or weaker ninja? This could alter the plan completely."

Jin turned toward Naruto and grinned. "Well good thing I've been watching them for some time now. The weaker ones, I think there are two Chunin and four Genin in the day, but two Jonin come in at night." Jin leaned back in his chair. "They think no one would dare attack during the day. We'll be able to get in and out quickly enough that the Jonin won't follow us."

"Agreed. Once we get out of this town. We'll deliver the weapons and go our separate ways." Jirou said.

"The weapons are all packed up into crates and ready to go." Jin said. "Do you have the seals?"

"Yes we do. Arata hand delivered them personally to me a couple of days ago." Jirou said.

"So that's what I was delivering. It was nice of Doshin to mention that." Naruto said. "I'll handle the seals. I got experience with them from past jobs."

"Okay, so here's the plan…" Jin began.

-A few hours later-

The headset in Naruto's headset crackled. "Alright, let's begin." Jin said. "Do it Arata."

Naruto walked by a deserted stand and dropped a small bag underneath the stall. "Done" Naruto said.

Ten seconds later, the old stall exploded, throwing debris everywhere. Soon six ninja rushed outside and stood. Waiting for the assault to come, which didn't come.

Naruto and Jirou rushed inside the building. "Alright let's hurry. They'll be back any moment." Jirou said.

"Here it is." Naruto said, pulling out the seals. "Put these on those boxes. I'll put these on the other ones." Naruto said and handed the seals to Jirou.

Ten minutes later all the crates were sealed. "Jeez, there were more crates than expected." Jirou said. "Come on let's meet up with Jin." Jirou turned on his headset. "Jin, is it all clear?"

"It's all clear for now, but you better hurry up and get out of there." Jin's voice crackled in their headsets.

"Okay, we'll be there soon." Jirou said. "Let's go Arata." The rushed outside and quickly separated in the crowd that was accumulating outside the building. The three met up quickly in an ally way.

"Mission successful. Now let's get these to the buyer." Jin said. "Also, the buyer has changed where he wants us to go. The drop off point is down south by the docks." Jin shook hands with Naruto and Jirou. "I'm going to head off and make sure the cops aren't onto us. Good luck." Jin said and headed out of the ally way.

Jirou turned towards Naruto. "So Arata, shall we deliver the stuff?" Jirou said.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah let's not keep them waiting." The two left the ally and walked towards the docks. "So how long do you think we have before they realize they've misplaced some things?" Naruto asked.

Jirou glanced at Naruto. "Oh, about an hour I say. Tell me; is there anything else more thrilling than a successful heist? To me, it's the greatest feeling in the world!" Jirou's said, his voice riddled with glee.

"Defiantly, to know you just succeeded where few people would even dare try. It's an exuberant feeling." Naruto said. "But we should hurry up. It's a little difficult to explain why were carrying around some missing military hardware."

"You're right. Let's hurry up. Jirou said as they rushed off towards the drop off point. When they got there, a man stepped out of the shadow.

"Are you Jirou?" The man asked.

"Yeah, are you Jin's contact?" Jirou asked.

The man smiled and said. "That's all I needed to know. Now!" The man shouted as over a dozen Lighting country ninja jumped out and wrestled Naruto and Jirou to the ground.

"What the fuck! Jin betrayed us!" Jirou spat as he struggled against the ninja.

Naruto ceased his struggling quickly, as his efforts were in vain. "Damn, were screwed." Naruto said. "Speak of the devil."

Jin strolled into the building they were being held in. He quickly walked over to the commander. "Anything else I can help you with?" Jin asked without even glancing toward the two prisoners.

The commander turned toward Jin. "Yes there is. Who is this man with Jirou? You said there would only be Jirou and no accomplishes." The commander said.

"He's just hired help. He's nobody." Jin said. "I didn't expect him either, but I did deliver the guy who's been stealing all your military hardware for the past few months."

The command nodded. "Alright, but don't accept anything extra for him."

Naruto had been listening intently to the two and said. "I'm not a criminal."

The commander snorted. "Tell that to the guy you stole these from." He motioned to the boxes of weapons. The name Katsuo Company was on all the boxes.

Naruto silently laughed at that. 'Oh well, what can you do.' Naruto thought.

-One day later-

Naruto and Jirou sat in the back of a carriage in silence. "So where do you think there taking us?" Naruto asked.

Jirou glanced at Naruto. "I don't know where you're going, but I can tell you where I'm heading." Jirou said and leaned back against the carriage. "I know they want names from the Water Fall crime family and I plan to give them some. Hopefully I'll get a lighter sentence and a better place to ride out my jail time. I don't know about you though. Sorry." Jirou finished.

Naruto nodded. "Don't worry about me. I've been in a lot worse positions before this." Naruto looked around beyond the carriage. "You know how bad Kumo's prisons are?" Naruto asked.

"No, I don't. Did you hear that one city has some kind of special carriage? The city of Manila has a ton of weird inventions, but supposedly these carriages don't need a horse to pull them." Jirou said.

"Yeah, Manila doesn't allow many of their inventions to leave the city. They fiercely guard their technology." Naruto said. "I mean there's a reason why none of the 5 Great Nations could ever take over that city. They got a lot of secrets on how to prevent take over's."

"You know a lot about Manila. You from there?" Jirou asked.

"Sort of." Naruto said just as the carriage slowed down. "Looks like this is where we part ways. Good luck."

Two guards walked to the back of the carriage and motioned for Naruto to get out. "Good luck to you too, Arata." Jirou said.

Naruto jumped down, and with the two guards flanking him, walked over to the entrance. The doors opened and the three men walked into the 'Waiting Room'. Once there, one of the guards un-cuffed him while the other one began speaking. "The rules are simple: Don't bother trying to escape. I don't know if you noticed, but you're a plateau and its damn near impossible to climb. Also, where surrounded by Kumo's 'Death Land'. You'll die in a matter of days if you get there. Meals are twice a day. Oh, and you better be nice to the guards. It would be terrible if we forgot your release date. Anymore questions, ask the damn prisoners. We're to busy to bother. Understand?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Just let me in for god's sake." Naruto said impatiently.

The guard gave him a cruel smile. "Sure." Another pair of doors opened, revealing the camp. "Welcome to Camp Kinkaseki! I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay." And the guards, while laughing, kicked Naruto into the prison. "Have fun rotting in here."


	5. Chapter 5

I'm gonna change the name of the story after this chapter gets posted.

Naruto hit the ground and rolled down a small embankment, coming to a stop in a pit of mud, groaning once he hit the ground.

"Maybe I shouldn't have been testy with the guard in my first five seconds." Naruto thought as he took in his surroundings. "Not very pretty." He thought, a few prisoners looked around and stared at him. Some looked at him very murderously, others curiosity, some like they were about to rob him, and others just gave him a hopeless stare.

One man, underneath a dead tree, beckoned for him to come over. Naruto stared at him. The man had a white beard and was wearing very ragged clothes, not someone who was a very successful in here, but Naruto shrugged and trudged on over to him and sat down next to him.

The old man grinned at Naruto, showing him that he was missing several teeth, and said. "So, what are you in for?"

"Straight to the point, huh? Well, I was robbing Kumo's military and for some reason they didn't like that. I got ratted out by someone and here I am." Naruto said.

The old man frowned. "You were robbing the military? Are you part of the rebellion? Or something."

Naruto looked at him confused. "There's a rebellion going on? I didn't know that. I was just looking to make a quick buck."

The old man sighed. "Well, that's the point. Information is a rare thing around here and we don't hear a lot from the outside. Just stories from new prisoners like yourself. Anyway, I Gin. I've been in here for twenty-seven years now."

"Damn, what did you do to piss off Kumogakure?"

Gin smiled. "Oh, you know. A little of this and a little of that, but what's your name. I gave you mine, now you give me yours."

"Your real pushy for my name. It's Arata."

"Well, Arata in here names and respect is all we have left. There's nothing in here and if you get out, that's all you have."

"If? What do you mean?"

"In my twenty-seven years here, I've only seen thirty-eight people walk out of here. The other thousands that get out of here are buried over beyond that hill."

"Why not escape? I mean, it can't be too hard to scale these walls and hide beyond here."

Gin sighed again. "New people, you all think escape is so easy. I'll let someone else explain it to ya, but for now it's nearly time to sleep." Gin stood up. "Follow me." Gin said.

Naruto got up and followed Gin to a small collapsed roof that was being held up by a few logs. Gin stopped. "Just go on over there. I'll join you in a few minutes." Gin trudged off.

Naruto looked around and headed inside. He glanced around inside and noticed a few makeshift cots lining the walls of the 'building' and went to sit down. A few prisoners were huddled around a small table glanced at him and snickered. "Wonder what that fool's doing." One of them murmured.

"Entertainment for the night." Another said.

Naruto briefly wondered what they meant, but laid down on the cot and drifted off to sleep.

"Get the hell outta my bed!"

Naruto awoke with a jolt and felt a pair of hands grab him and throw him to the ground. A fist soon followed and smashed into Naruto's nose.

Naruto hit the ground, clutching his nose, and looked up. He saw a giant man standing over him. The giant delivered a kick and was just about to smash Naruto's skull in.

Suddenly, Naruto rolled sideways and kicked the giant straight in the crouch. He immediately leaped up and began punching the giant as hard as he could. Before the Naruto could land another blow, a hand shot out and hit Naruto in the jaw, causing him to roll over into some cots.

The two men staggered to their feet. Each of them stared at each other. Eventually, the other man spoke. "Get the hell out of here." He snarled.

Naruto glanced around and noticed the men playing cards earlier stood up and they looked ready to fight.

"Alright." Naruto turned and walked out of the shack. Naruto lifted his hands and felt his nose.

"Nothing seems to be broken." Naruto thought. He spotted Gin all little ways a way and began walking towards him.

Gin looked up. "You all right?"

"No thanks to you. You knew that would happen, didn't you?" Naruto asked angrily.

"Of course. I just wanted to see if you could fight him off, and you did. Most people who fight Gordo don't walk back to me."

"Why though?"

"Isn't it obvious? I wanted to see if you would be useful to my gang. We always need fresh blood."

"What if I refuse?"

Gin leaned closer to Naruto. "Listen, in here there's three groups. My group, it's not really a gang, the guards, and the Blood Devils, that's the gang Gordo's in. They control their side of the prison, we control ours. The guards will keep to themselves and they don't really enforce the rules here and if you want to get outta here, you have to belong to one. I doubt the Devils will want you in now that you royally pissed off Gordo, he's one of the Lieutenants, that leaves my group. So, join up if you want to survive your prison time." Gin finished and stared at Naruto.

Naruto looked around and shrugged. "I guess I don't really have a choice."

Gin looked relived. "Good. I'll show you your quarters."

Naruto followed Gin through the prison and eventually came upon doorway leading inside.

"This is where we stay." Gin said. "I hope you're not afraid of the dark."

Naruto followed Gin inside. After walking for a few minutes, he came upon a cell. Inside was an even older man than Gin and two cots.

The man laying down on the cot looked up and stood up. "So this is my new cell mate." The man got up and unlocked the cell.

"You lock the cell?" Naruto said suspiciously.

"It's so I don't need someone on watch." The man said. "A lot of us do it. By the way, my name is Wong. Yours?" Wong said.

"Arata." Naruto walked into the cell and sat down.

"Well, I bid you two farewell." Gin said and walked off.

Wong looked at Naruto. "You'd better get some sleep. You look like shit."

Naruto glanced at him. "You don't look so much better either. Besides, don't old men need to sleep all the time."

"Oh, cheeky twit." Wong chuckled. "Just go to sleep. Maybe it will make you wiser. Like me."

"Yeah, sure it will."

Naruto laid down and drifted off to sleep.

"So you just want me to go in and grab it right?" Naruto asked.

"That's right." Gin said. The two men were crouched behind a crumbling stone statue. Both were staring at a guard standing on a wooden platform.

Naruto glanced at Gin. "What will happen if I fail?" Naruto asked.

"The guard will be the hell out of you and you'll be put in solitary confinement for a week with barely any food or water. So it would be in your best interest to not get caught and thrown in there." Gin said.

Naruto went back to looking at the guard. He had been doing this for several weeks. Doing odd jobs like this. Gin had claimed it was to build up trust and Naruto would know soon. Frankly, Naruto thought this was a little ridiculous.

"Run me through the plan again." Naruto demanded.

"Alright, so this is how it will go down. One of my men, Tianozou, will run down there and knock the platform over just as the supply carts are coming in. While everyone is falling down, run in and steal Dolso's ring, the guard by the way in case you forgot. He's one of the officers in the prison and he'll make who ever stole his ring life's living hell."

"Which is mine." Naruto interjected.

"Calm down, I ain't finished yet. We need his ring for the future. It will come in handy. Trust me."

"Kind of a hard thing to do when your not telling me much."

"Don't worry. You'll understand everything soon enough." Gin glanced at his watch. "The carts are just about to arrive get ready and good luck."

Naruto rose to his feet and made his way down to the group of prisoners that were gather to unload the carts. The reason why there was such a crowd, was because whoever unloaded them, could easily swipe one or two things while doing it. But Naruto wasn't here to steal food. There was something else he wanted. Something, if Gin was right, something far more valuable than some cans of spam or whatever they were being fed.

Naruto entered the crowd just as the carts were entering. He spotted Tianozou making his way to the platform and decided to get close to Dolso before the chaos began. He immediately began weaving through the crowd. Naruto felt a pang of fear and wondered what would happen if he got caught. "No time to worry about that now." Naruto thought.

Naruto heard a cracked and the entire platform collapsed, spilling sacks of food, guards, and prisoners. Naruto saw Dolso rush forward trying to bring order to the prisoners scrambling to grab whatever.

Just then, Naruto came up with an idea. He grabbed a fellow prisoner and threw him at Dolso. Before Naruto, Dolso crumbled to the floor. Grabbing another prisoner, Naruto threw him on top of Dolso and immediately reached for his ring. Only to find there was no ring on his finger. Naruto immediately searched the only other lace he could think of: Dolso's pocket.

Reaching in, he felt the ring and grabbed it. "Success." Naruto thought triumphantly.

Naruto turned to get out of this brawl only to plow into a prisoner. The ring slipped from Naruto's hand.

Horror fell over Naruto. "Oh Shit." Naruto thought. Quickly making up his mind, he leaped straight into the brawl and began a frantic search for the ring. After several minutes of searching, he spotted it on the ground. "Bingo" Naruto thought.

Naruto grabbed it and made a beeline for the exit.

At the exit, Gin was waiting. "Did you get it?" He asked.

Panting, Naruto showed him the ring. "Got it."

Gin smiled. "Excellent."

Catching his breath, Naruto handed the ring to Gin. "So, what's this for? If you were watching you'd know I nearly lost the ring."

Gin smiled again. "Arata, if you were smarter, you would've made me tell you before you handed me the ring."

Naruto sighed. "Should've thought of that earlier."

"Yes. Yes you should have, but come were one step closer to escaping. Hell, we might be able to get out in a month." Gin began walking towards their 'base'. "In a week Arata, then you'll know our plan to leave. For now, get some rest. I'll have someone bring you some food. Also, keep your head down. The guards will be looking for anyone in that brawl."

Naruto nodded glumly. "I was hoping to get some answers." Naruto thought as he headed for his bunk. "Another day I guess."

"Hey, Arata, wake up."

Naruto jerked awake and shot up from his cot. "Jeez, just about gave me a heart attack."

Gin laughed. "Come on. You can finally get your answers today."

"About time."

"Just follow me."

Naruto followed Gin deeper into the building. Several minutes later, the two men stood in front of a wall. Gin approached the wall and knocked on the wall three times. Almost immediately the wall swung open and the two men walked inside. Inside was a woman with black hair, sitting down across a table with several seats besides and in front of her.

She smiled. "You must be Arata. Welcome, I am Mari, leader of the Kumo rebellion and in charge of this operation here. Please have a seat."

Naruto sat down, followed by Gin. "So why did you call me here?" Naruto asked.

Gin cleared his throat. "To answer your questions of course and to make an offer."

Mari nodded. "Precisely, we know you've had quite a few questions and we believe your earned the right to some knowledge."

"Alright, so why the rebellion? I never heard of anything like this as a kid. I'm also gonna guess your ninjas too, not gangsters or whatever."

"Yes we are ninja rebelling against the fourth Raikage. The rebellion started several years ago. Right before A took power and began wielding Kumo with an iron fist. My father was a candidate for the Raikage and would've won had it not been for A murdering several councilman and sealing the Eight-tails into his brother. My father left the capitol and began warring with Kumo. Eventually, several years before the Hyuga Crisis, he was killed and hundreds of us were captured. I was just a young girl at the time and we were all thrown into prisons." Mari said.

"Now we see a chance to escape. Surrounding this prison is the Kumo Badlands, one of the harshest places on Earth. It's claimed entire army's including the 1st Tsuchikage. We learned earlier this year that some strange weather pattern has moved in, soaking the Badlands. According to several sources, some oases have been created. It would allow us to escape and not all die in the Badlands." Gin said.

"So you need my help with escaping, right?" Naruto asked. "But why me? Why not yourselves? You both said your ninjas. Can't you break out and run?"

"I don't know if you noticed yet, but Kumo has installed several chakra blockers. It's made any jutsu useless if you have been marked with this seal, which everyone has. We're not so good without chakra, but you are. We've seen you handle enemies in here, enemies we'd need chakra to beat. Also, several members we gained inside the jail don't use chakra. Without them we'd have no force to fight A." Gin concluded.

"And in one week, we'll be ready to leave this terrible prison." Mari said. "We just need to get everyone ready."

Gin nodded. "Were just about ready to go. There are only a few things left to do and we'll be outta here."

"We'd also like to extend and offer to you to be a Lieutenant in our army. You're resourceful and we need more people like you if we want to take out A."

Naruto looked at her surprised. "Thanks, but I'll need some time to think about that."

Mari scoffed at him. "Honestly, why would you turn that down? You're being offered a post that may get you one of the most powerful positions in the world. A Lieutenant now, but when we win this war, you'll be a General. Also, we know you're a ninja, or at least have some training."

Naruto looked at her surprised again. "How did you know?"

Mari smirked. "Any decent ninja can sense chakra. Gin and I both sensed you, but think about my offer. It's a once in lifetime offer."

"Like I said: I'll think about it, but just saying; I'm not a very good ninja. I gave up and know I'm looking for something."

"We'll help you find it once we've won the war."

"No, only I know what I'm looking for and I think I'm close to finding it."

Gin looked amused. "In here Arata? There's not a whole lot in here."

"I know, but I couldn't explain it to you. It's something I have to do on my own."

"Well we'll help you find it if you want, but for now go get some sleep we all have a big week tomorrow." Mari said. "Good night."

Naruto and Gin both got up and left. The two walked in silence for a while.

"So how many people who are in this gang actually know what's going on?" Naruto asked.

"Too many if you ask me. Wong, your cellmate, knows, but he's too old to fight now. Several others know, but most have a general idea on who we are. Everyone in this prison knows really, well except the Blood Devils. There all a bunch of morons."

"Seeing as I had no clue who you are makes me feel clueless. Thanks Gin."

"Don't mention it. Good night."

"Same to you."

Naruto went back to his cot and went to sleep immediately. This was gonna be a busy week


	6. Chapter 6

In a cave somewhere…

Several figures appeared at once. All of them were holographs. The notorious Akatsuki had formed up.

"Were all here." Kisame said. "Except for the zombie brothers. They've finally been put into the ground, but you never know with them." Kisame joked.

"Show some respect Kisame. Hidan and Kakuzu were comrades." Pein said.

"They will be missed. I think." Deidara joked.

"Enough of this, we have work to do." Konan said.

"Of course we do, were still missing two of the tailed beasts." Itachi stated.

"You think we'll find them after all this time? I think we should just give up." Tobi said playfully.

"And that is why you're not a great ninja Tobi. You give up to easy. You also need to pay attention more. We know where the Eight-Tails is, but it's under heavy guard. Much heavier now that we've been spotted in Konoha last month." Zetsu said.

"Are there any leads on the Nine-Tails?" Itachi asked.

"Yes. Samehada has picked up traces of a tailed beasts chakra. It was only a weeks old, but it's in Kumogakure." Kisame said.

"How do we know it's not the Eight-Tails?" Konan asked. "We can't afford to run around on a wild goose chase anymore. We show up in Kumo, the Raikage is gonna go after us."

"She's right. We can't afford any more losses." Pein said. "Itachi, Kisame, are you sure it's the Nine-Tails?"

"The chakra is turning up in the South-West part of the country. The Eight-Tails is more towards the center." Itachi said. "I can't guarantee it, but this is where most of the signs were popping up."

"He's right Pein. The Eight-Tails movement is restricted by his brother." Zetsu said.

"I'll take your word, but if you're wrong. I'll have your heads." Pein said.

"Would you like one of our heads? We have hundreds of them." Zetsu joked.

"Now is not the time for jokes. We need action. It's also time I announce two new members to the Akatsuki. Gannon and Amuru, welcome to the Akatsuki.

Two new figures stepped out. One was female with midnight black hair and a sword strapped to her back. She had bright green eyes and pointed ears and gave everyone a nervous smile. The other was nearly as tall as Kisame and he was dressed in black, but all of the members could make out the seals and muscles on him. He had black hair also and eyes blacker than coal. He just nodded to everyone.

"Hello." Amuru said nervously. "Nice to meet you." She bowed low to all of the members.

"Gannon, at your service." Gannon said. He just jerked his head a little.

Everyone called out a greeting.

"It's nice to see someone else with a sword, even if it is a toothpick." Kisame said.

"This isn't just a toothpick. It's strong. Trust me." Amuru said.

"Let's not forget why we're here people." Konan called out. "We need to get the other two beasts and fast."

"Well does anyone have a plan?" Deidara asked.

"It seems like all were doing is bickering among ourselves." Itachi said.

"That's because that's all we do." Tobi said.

"I still don't understand how you got into the Akatsuki Tobi. All your good at is running and some Earth techniques." Deidara said.

"It's because I'm awesome like that." Tobi said.

"Enough!" Pein shouted. Immediately the room went silent. "I understand you feel frustrated. I am too. We still haven't obtained our goal of all the tailed beasts, but we will have them by the end of the month. Both of them, and then this world will experience true pain."

"I have an idea." Itachi said. "It may seem risky, but it will be easy if we do it correctly."

"Your all dismissed, except you Itachi. Tell me your plan." Pein said.

Everyone in the room faded out, leaving only Itachi and Pein. "Now it goes like this…"

Naruto was in his cell doing push-ups. He was just finishing a set when Wong walked in. "Are you sure you should be doing that right now? We will all need to be a max strength and being sore won't make you any better when the time comes to get out of here."

Naruto stopped for a moment. "I like to stay in shape. Also I'm not working that hard." Naruto continued on with his workout.

"Still, you'll want to be at your max. Not tired." Wong said.

Naruto stopped and stood up. "Fine. I'm done anyway. Let's go find Gin and see if we can help with anything."

Just as Naruto stood up, Gin walked in. "Is it time?" Naruto asked.

"Sort of." Gin said. "The first part of the plan is about to begin. Remember that ring you stole? We need to return it or give it to someone else."

"What do you need me to do?"

"If we want to get out of here with as little causality as possible, we need to make sure the other gang doesn't interfere with us. You're going to plant the ring on Gordo. Got it?"

Sounds easy enough Naruto thought. "Just give me the ring."

Gin reached into his pocket and handed the ring to Naruto. "Also, you don't need to put it in his pocket. You just need to get it so the guards will think Gordo took it."

"So like a sack or under his bed."

Gin nodded. "Just use your imagination." And with that Gin walked away.

Naruto creped over to where Gordo's bed was and seeing that no one was around slipped it under Gordo's bed mat, just as he was leaving Gordo stepped in.

"You." He snarled. "You're that bastard over in Gin's gang."

Naruto continued to walk out of Gordo's hut. "Don't know what you're talking about." I have really shitty luck here don't I.

Gordo was about to snarl something else but stopped and smiled instead. "Just wait. Soon you won't be able to prance around like you're doing now. You just watch your back for now. Cause soon you won't have your friends to back you up."

Naruto left without saying anything. He understood how men like Gordo and in a few days he wouldn't have to see him ever again.

He walked back to his bed. Gin was there talking to Wong. Naruto just gave him a thumb up. "Mission accomplished."

"That's good to hear. I was just briefing Wong on what to do. Feel free to sit in if you want." Gin said.

Naruto laid down in his bed. "Alright, but don't get offended if I nod off." It didn't take him long to fall asleep.

Just as dawn was approaching, the Akatsuki formed up.

"So this is the beginning of the end. Isn't Pein?" Konan asked.

"Yes, yes it is. Do we all understand the plan?" Pein said. He turned to Itachi. "Itachi, are you ready?"

"Yes. I'll control the seven-tails. You'll control the other six with your chakra blades." Itachi said and with that he manipulated the seven tails to the Valley of the Clouds and Lighting.

"Let's hurry this up and show them how art is a blast." Deidara said. He created a bird and jumped on it, taking flight quickly and ascending into the air, heading towards the capitol of Kumogakure.

Gannon summoned a beast. It was a sort of like a giant boar. "I'll ride this into Kumogakure. I have other giant beasts to summon. They'll cause plenty of chaos."

"Hold up. I'll go with you." Amuru jumped up and joined Gannon on top if the giant boar.

"Is this a summon?" Amuru asked.

"Sort of." The duo ran off, straight into Kumo.

"Kisame, just do whatever you can to cause chaos." Pein ordered.

Kisame chuckled. "You got it. Let's see how they like getting sliced into ribbons." Kisame stepped into a river and vanished, heading downstream into a near by town.

"Konan, create your paper fortress. I don't know how well I'll be able to use Deva path once I start controlling the Tailed Beasts."

Kona turned to Tobi. "Tobi, if you would start."

Tobi saluted. "No problem Ms. Konan." Tobi turned away from Konan and performed the seals for a jutsu, an Earth Jutsu. "Doton, Earth platform." The ground quickly formed up into a platform and walls enclosed parts of the platform as well. "That's all for Tobi. You sure you don't want me to control a tailed beast? I bet I could do it pretty well."

Pein shook his head. "Tobi, I'm still angry that you never told us you stole a Sharigan or where you got it. But no, I don't need your help. Join Deidara after this. You're dismissed." Pein walked over to Konan. "Is it ready?"

"Not yet, Pein." Konan did a few seals and paper flew off to the structure Tobi made. The paper began to form wings on the structure and soon it was ready.

"Excellent Konan. Wait a moment." Pein walked over to the fort and began sticking chakra rods into it. "This will allow it to fly. Go into the structure. I shall summon the tailed beasts now."

Konan entered the fort and Pein performed a few seals and in no time six tailed beasts appeared. Each had Chakra rods in them and all six of them had the Rinnegan for eyes. Pein walked back into the fort and sat down. "Now we begin the capture of the Eight and Nine Tails."

Author's note: The characters are gonna be different in my story. Also there abilities will be different.


	7. Chapter 7

Deidara flew immediately to Kumo's ninja village. He wanted to be the first Akatsuki to strike. So he flew and in a few hours, he was high above Kumo.

Deidara glanced down onto the streets of Kumo. No one's noticed me yet. He grinned as he pulled out a statue of a bird.

"Now let's show the good people of Kumogakure that art…" He paused for a moment and dropped the statue. "Is a BLAST!"

A massive explosion ripped through Kumogakure. Several buildings teetered and collapsed, crushing civilians and ninja.

Deidara dropped several others, each causing equal destruction.

"Raikage, we are under attack from the Akatsuki!" A Chunin yelled. "We think it is the clay user from Iwagakure, Deidara."

A was looking out of the window of his office, looking over the destruction of his village. A turned away from that and smashed a desk into pieces and shouted. "Order 50 lighting users to bring him down! Get the Genin to escort the civilians to safety! Order another 100 to attack the bombs as they fall!" A walked towards the window and threw the destroyed desk through the window. He paused for a moment and turned back to the Chunin. "Also, send a message to the other villages. Notify them that the Akatsuki have surfaced again and this is our chance to kill them all." And with that, A leaped from his office and ran off.

A's assistant remained in his office. "You know, I know the village is under attack, but he could have at least used the stairs." She turned towards the Chunin. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go get those lighting users. I'll handle the message to the other villages."

The Chunin nodded. "Yes ma'am!"

Just as he was leaving, another ninja ran into A's office, panting. "Where's the Raikage!" She shouted.

The assistant was just preparing the message for the other villages. "He's gone out to fight the Akatsuki, Karui."

"Dammit!" She shouted. "I need to see him and tell him that the Seven-tails is heading towards Killer Bee."

Itachi stood on top of the Nanabi, flying straight towards Killer Bee. He knew he had most likely been spotted by Kumo, but hopefully Deidara would tie up Kumo and allow him to capture Killer Bee.

Itachi soon spotted the Valley of Clouds and Lighting. Scanning the valley, he spotted a tent and willed the seven-tails to begin charging up for a chakra blast.

The blast headed straight into the tent and exploded and tore up the land. Dust and debris flew everywhere.

Itachi stared at the destruction in front of him, hoping that wasn't it from one of the most powerful tailed beasts. He wasn't disappointed when another tailed beast blast flew right out of the dust and straight at him.

The Nanabi lazily dodged the blast and hovered nearby as the dust cleared.

In place of the dust was a massive Octopus. The Eight-Tails, Itachi mused.

"Let's begin, Killer Bee."

No words were exchanged as Bee charged up another blast and fired it right at Itachi. Itachi and the Nanabi were obliterated and blown away from the blast.

"Look at that guy, thinking he's a tough guy, but it didn't take him long to fry." Bee said.

"You should pay attention more, especially in a fight." A voice said beside him. Just as Bee heard it the Nanabi released another blast straight into the side of the Hachibi.

Bee was thrown into a nearby mountain and smashed the mountain completely.

Itachi channeled his chakra through the Nanabi and the Nanabi fired a massive fireball at Bee. Itachi circled the wreckage, wondering if that was it for the Eight-tails. He was not disappointed when the Hachibi came to life and swung its tentacles at him.

"Bee, this isn't going well." The Hachibi said. "I've lost most of my chakra firing those 2 blasts and using more on defending against the last blast and that fireball. You need to slow down the chakra consumption."

"I know bud, but this guy ain't no dud." Bee said. "I'll bring this fight to close quarters now."

Bee lashed out with his tentacles and began dragging down the Nanabi. Right as he was about to burst the Nanabi's head off it, the seven-tails dissolved into hundreds of ravens.

"Genjutsu Bee. He's escaping."

"I know, I thought that was the final blow."

Itachi performed a few hand signs and the water erupted around the Eight-Tails, forming six tall towers around the Hachibi.

"Water style: Six water spiral attack." The six spires launched several spears at the Hachibi, impaling it in several spots.

Bee let out a howl of pain and immediately jerked out of the water spears. Several of the Eight-tails tentacles fell off and landed into the water.

"Bee, this is urgent. I can heal your wounds, but then you'll only have enough for one more tailed beast blast and no rapping of your going to say something, the author is getting tired of thinking of raps."

"Yeah, I understand. Eight, only heal the wounds that restrict my movement. We'll take care of the more life threating ones later. If you do that, I should have enough for 2 more blasts, but I can't afford to mess it up."

"Understood, but if you want to survive these wounds, you're going to have to end this now."

The Eight-Tails shot forward straight at Itachi and the Nanabi, charging a tailed beast blast. "This will be the end for you!" Bee shouted.

"You should realize that a frontal attack is useless." Itachi said as the Seven-tails charged up for it's own blast.

Just as the Seven-Tails was done charging, the Eight-Tails vanished in a burst of lightning.

"Who said this was a frontal attack?" Itachi looked up and saw the Eight-Tails just before it released it's chakra blast. Itachi and the Nanabi slammed into the ground, creating a massive crater. Bee landed besides them a second later and transformed back to normal. "We showed him, didn't we Eighter?"

'I'm exhausted from that fight.' Bee thought.

"Bee, watch out! I just sensed him!"

Bee immediately got into a fighting stance with his swords, when the Itachi and the Nanabi in the crater exploded. Bee was thrown like a ragdoll into the air slamming into a pile of rocks, nearly knocking him out and knocking all of his swords away. 'My swords.' Bee thought through the fog that had invaded his mind.

Itachi landed right next to Bee. "A simple shadow clone explosion defeated the great and powerful Eight-tails." Itachi looked right at Bee and put him under a genjutsu. "I know your tailed beast is out of chakra. You can't resist this Genjutsu. Good-bye." Itachi summoned a clone, which picked up Bee and placed him on the Nanabi before dispelling.

The capture of the Eight-tails was complete.

'I wonder how everyone else is doing on their tasks.' Itachi wondered. Itachi closed his eyes contacted Pein.

"Itachi, I take it everything was a success?" Pein said.

"Yes Pein. The Eight-tails is secure and I'm heading to the sealing place now. How is the hunt for the Nine-Tails?"

"Not well. We still haven't located him yet. I've ordered the others to begin targeting villages and towns. We will destroy all of Kumo if we have to in order to root him out of hiding."

"Also, Itachi I need your help with something. Meet me at my location in two hours."

"Yes Pein."

Tsunade was in her office, just about to finish the day when the transmission came in from Kumo.

Tsunade quickly read the first reports about the Akatsuki attacking Kumo and decided this maybe the chance to destroy the Akatsuki once and for all.

"Shizune! Summon Kakashi here right now. Also get Tenzo in here ASAP."

She didn't even hear Shizune reply, she was too busy trying to find a way to get Naruto back and completely destroy the Akatsuki in one stroke.

Deidara continued to rain down death on Kumo for nearly an hour. He had nearly run bout of clay and was preparing to leave when lighting began striking everywhere.

Deidara swore and began swerving in an attempt to dodge the incoming lighting strikes.

On the ground, men were loading catapults and other devices in an attempt to bring Deidara down.

"Move over!" The Raikage had arrived and made is way toward a catapult. Lighting sparked all over his body. He then proceeded to climb on a catapult. "Prepare to launch me at the enemy." A ordered.

The ninja in charged nearly fell over when he heard this. "Um, are you sure that's a good idea sir? What if we miss?"

A turned to him with a very nasty look on his face. "And for your sake solider, I hope you don't."

The ninja gulped and ordered his team to get ready to fire. "Fire!" He shouted and A was launched into the air.

Deidara was just beginning to leave when A flew right at him. He only had time to catch a glimpse of him before his head was lobbed off by A's punch. 'Too fast' were Deidara's final thoughts.

A continued flying and smashed into his office, creating another hole, and landed right in front of his secretary and Karui.

"Raikage!" Karui yelled. "Bee is under attack from another Akatsuki!"

"Couldn't you have used the other hole? The other countries responded by the way and are sending several attachments to help us find the Akatsuki."

"Stop making jokes Masami, and what do you mean Bee is under attack? I just killed one of them." A said, his anger rising again.

Before Karui could respond another ninja, a Jonin, raced into A's office. "Raikage sir. The Akatsuki have invaded the whole country. We have dozens of reports from members rampaging around the western part. Bee has also been captured by the enemy and is being transported by the Akatsuki to Lake Mami. The coastline is also under attack from the Akatsuki member known as Kisame. A couple other members are causing massive damage to our military bases by the border of Iwa." The Jonin finished and collapsed from exhaustion.

A walked over to a book case and smashed it into splinters. "Order every ninja we have and form them up. I want an army of fast ninja to meet me at Lake Mami to recapture Bee. Send a cable to the other countries. Tell them were going to need more than a few men if we want to wipe out the Akatsuki. Also, Masami, get me another goddamned desk! Now move!" and with that A turned around and smashed another hole through his office and went to lead Kumo's army.

Masami sighed. "I'll get that cable to the other countries. Kauri, can you take care of this ninja. Then I'd go join the Raikage. Also, make sure he sends some more ninja to defend the Daimyo from the Akatsuki. I'll also send out the notes to the commanders to mobilize our military. Good luck out there by the way."

Kauri nodded and raced out of the office.

Well this is the most fun I've had in a while. Kisame mused as he killed another Kumo ninja. He had just been flooding a fishing village when several ninja showed up and tried attacking him. He said tried because he killed all of them except one who ran off to get reinforcements. It had been a while and he expected him back soon.

Kisame grinned, displaying his shark teeth. "Well, look who's finally back. I thought you were going to run off completely."

No less than twenty other ninja show up. All of them had swords out and looked ready to fight. The leader, an older Jonin pointed his sword at Kisame. "You'll pay for this you monster."

Kisame just began preparing hand seals. "Monster? Maybe you've seen one. I'm looking for the Nine-tails. Any information and I may spare your lives. Deal?"

"Enough talk. Prepare to die." All of the ninja prepared a lightning jutsu to fry Kisame.

Kisame laughed. "So, you don't know anything. Guess I don't have to hold back." Kisame immediately lunged straight at a Chunin and crushed his throat with one of his hands. The Chunin let out a gurgled scream and died right there. A nervous Genin then fired his lightning attack early and hit another Genin.

Kisame laughed again. "It's just too perfect." All the other ninja released the lightning attacks at Kisame who dodged them easily and swung his sword right on top of a Jonin's head. The Jonin didn't even have time to react as his head was smashed by Samehada. "Come on. I need a challenge and there is no Itachi to stop me now!"

Three ninja charged him with their swords. One aimed for his head and was blocked by Samehada. Another lunged at his heart and was stopped by kick to the neck and nasty crack was heard from all around. The last one also tried the heart and was stopped by his friend's body falling on him.

"Yuu!" A female Kumo ninja screamed. She raced after Yuu and was cut down by another attack from Samehada.

"Pathetic and you call yourselves shinobi." Kisame taunted. One by one, sometimes in groups, each ninja was killed until there were none.

Kisame began walking toward another village not far from here until he was interrupted by Samehada pulling him another direction. "What is it? Do you sense something?" Kisame asked his sword. The sword motioned that way and soon Kisame understood. "You sense the Nine-Tails chakra? That way? Then that's where were heading." With a general idea where the Nine-Tails was, Kisame began heading westward.

Halfway across Kumo, Gannon and Amuru were in the middle of attacking a Kumo military base. Amuru was cutting down several Kumo ninja, while Gannon was attacking buildings and heavy weapons such as cannons. He had also summoned several creatures. They looked like black smoke and they seemed like they were made of smoke.

Gannon was sitting on top of one of these creatures; so far it was the largest at nearly 15 feet tall even when it was on all fours. It had massive claws on its feet and a small, stubby tail, its head looked like a lizards and it had dark scaly skin similar to a lizard. Gannon turned toward Amuru. "Be sure to check their headquarters. They may have a copy of their battle plans here."

Amuru glanced back at Gannon. "Yeah, I was just about to head over there. The commander of the base was taken out already, right?"

"Yes, one of my shadow beasts killed him."

Amuru looked at several of the ninja attacking one right now. "So, are those invincible? They don't seem to have a weakness." Amuru asked as she headed for the commanders quarters.

"Everything has a weakness. They just have to find it."

She turned away from the battle with the shadow beast. Guess I better watch myself around him. Amuru thought to herself. She entered the commander's quarters and began searching for any documents that could help the Akatsuki fend off a counter-attack from Kumo.

Back outside, the Kumo ninja were just beginning to figure out the weakness of the shadow beasts. One of the Jonin commanders called out. "Everyone, the beasts can be hurt if you channel your chakra through something. It has to be normal chakra, not a nature chakra."

The surviving ninja immediately began attacking the beast with their swords and inch by inch, they began to turn back the beast. Casualties were beginning to run high, too high for many of the ninja and once they got some breathing room, they retreated outside the base and began preparing to defend against the next onslaught of these creatures.

Gannon jumped from his summon and onto a stone rampart. Looking down on the Kumo nin, he began thinking of a plan to finish them off. Maybe I'll send level 2 creatures at them. He mused. "Yeah that will finish them off." He began to gather his chakra for a summon and summoned three identical creatures. These were more humanoid, but they too were composed of shadowy material. They stood at nearly 7 feet tall and had masks on. The masks were black with identical patterns on each of them. The patterns were simply several lines through them. They had no eye holes or any visible noses and had short, rope like hair. "Attack and wipe out those ninja down there. Leave no survivors." Gannon ordered.

The three creatures raced down there at far faster speeds then the previous summons and crashed right into the survivors of the military base, tearing apart the ninja with their bare hands. What blows the creatures took they absorbed and in no time the survivors were all wiped out.

Amuru joined him just as the last ninja fell and handed him several documents. "We should report this to Pein as soon as we can." Amuru said.

Gannon quickly scanned the documents. "Yes he will need to know. Get ready, were going to move out soon."

"Wait, can't we grab something. I saw a safe back there and I want to go back real quick."

Gannon shook his head. "No, we need to get this to Pein now. We had no idea that all of the countries would react this way once we attacked."

Amuru scowled. "Well you can tell Pein that. I'm going to open that safe. I mean, this is why I joined the Akatsuki, to get rich. I'm not about to let that safe go."

It was Gannon's turn to scowl now. "And you're going to just jeopardize our whole operation just so you can steel some gold? If we win you can have all of the gold in the world. Well I'm going to go on ahead. Do you need me to leave a summon?"

Amuru angrily shook her head. "No, I can get my own ride. See you around."

Gannon watched her walk off. "For some reason, I doubt it." Gannon jumped back on his summon and headed off to meet Pein.

18 years ago in Konoha.

A seven year old Naruto sat in his apartment; he had just been forced out of the orphanage a couple of weeks ago and had been given an apartment by the Hokage and he had assigned a caretaker to check up on him. Every few days old man Hokage would check up on him.

Those days were his favorite. All the caretaker would do is ignore him.

But today was different. For the first time since staying in his apartment, it was raining and thundering and Naruto was terrified. Old man Hokage had promised that he would visit today, but he was starting to think the Hokage lied and wasn't coming.

Now people were outside throwing rocks or something at his apartment. He didn't understand why

"Maybe it's cause I'm an orphan." Naruto thought glumly.

The rocks ceased soon after that, but something else happened, something far more terrifying. A man dressed in black wearing a dragon mask for the ANBU Black Ops. Was pounding on the door and peering through the windows. He proceeded to smash the glass with a brick and began screaming into Naruto's apartment.

"Better not come out you Demon. Cause if you do, were gonna kill you. You got that you little shit?"

Naruto covered his ears and closed his eyes, but he couldn't block out the screaming. "Go away!" He screamed.

The man just laughed and continued banging against Naruto's door. "Just wait till I get in there."

Naruto opened his eyes to make sure he wasn't making his way in, but almost immediately regretted it.

"You opened your eyes you stupid demon."

Naruto saw a flash and soon he was in a different place. He was in a cold dark cave.

"Where am I?" He shouted. He felt hot breath on his back and he turned slowly around and saw a giant black dragon. The beast roared and Naruto began screaming. The worst part was realizing no one was coming.

Naruto woke up with a start, panting, and jerking his head around making sure he was safe. He closed his eyes again and caught his breath before standing and walking out of his cell. He saw Wong sitting down and went over to join him.

Wong looked up at Naruto. "Ah, so sleeping beauty is awake."

"Yeah, yeah. Make as many jokes as you want. Anything interesting happen while I was asleep?"

Wong grinned. "You know that ring you gave to Gordo? Well, the guards found it and Dolso wasn't very pleased." Wong laughed.

"Well, come on. Don't leave out any of the details."

Wong stopped laughing. "You have no idea how nice it is for a something to go according to plan. Anyway, Dolso just beat Gordo in front of everyone and dragged him off to solitary. He'll be there for a while, but Mari asked to see you."

Naruto looked up in surprise. "Me? Do you know what she wants?"

Wong shook his head. "No, but I wouldn't want to keep her waiting. She can have a real mean temper if you keep her waiting for too long."

Naruto turned around and began heading towards Mari's quarters. "Well see you around."

Naruto passed the guard and entered Mari's room. Mari looked up from her chair and smiled. "Welcome, Arata. How are you?"

"Good. How are things?"

Mari stood up and walked up to Naruto, but Naruto noticed how she walked. It was more of a seductive walk.

Mari smiled again. "Excellent, but could you join me? I need help with something."

It was Naruto turn to smile. "Well, I'm sure I can you with anything you need."

Mari grabbed Naruto's hand. "Well what are you waiting for? Let's go."

A while later, Naruto and Mari laid beneath the covers of her bed. "You know it's been a while since I last did that." Naruto said.

"I bet. This is prison after all, unless you're playing for the other team."

Naruto laughed. "No, I don't swing like that." Naruto began stroking her head. "You're very beautiful by the way."

"Or are you saying that because I'm beautiful, or because I'm the only women in this prison?"

Naruto smiled. "Both, but that just makes you better I think."

Mari smiled. "Thank you. You're not too bad yourself."

The two laid there for several more minutes. "So what's next? For getting out of here I mean and then after that, for us?"

"One thing at a time, Arata. First, let's get out of here. Then decide what's next."

Elsewhere, Kumo's cries for help were being met. All of the 5 Great shinobi nations had decided to send some ninja and an army would follow them, all for the intention of destroying the Akatsuki.

"That is your mission. Kakashi, Sakura, Tenzo, and Sasuke, do you understand? Find the Akatsuki and kill or capture them. All of them have been sighted there, including Itachi, but you must listen to Kumo. Also, Naruto may have been spotted in Kumo. If he has, bring him back here." Tsunade said.

Deep down Tsunade was hoping she wasn't making a mistake in ordering them to bring back Naruto. Sure Kakashi, Sakura, and even Sasuke had shown remorse for their actions, with Sasuke showing remorse last, and now they wanted him back as well, but she was hoping Naruto wouldn't attack them or anything.

Sakura raised her hand. "Would Naruto be protected here? The council still hates him."

Tsunade nodded. "I should be able to protect him from them." She looked at all four of them. "If this is successful, we may see a new world emerge out of this mess. Don't fail me."

The four shinobi looked up in surprise at that comment. "What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"I can't say now. Not yet, but you must not fail me. Understand?"

The four nodded and walked out of her office.

Tsunade turned toward Shizune. "Do you think I'm making a right choice by bringing Naruto back?"

"I hope so, but did you ever consider if he didn't want to come back? Or even if you will find him?"

"That's why it's a secondary objective for them. I know they've repented for what they did and now they see him in a new light, but still I just hope he hasn't changed too much." Tsunade turned back to her desk and began signing forms authorizing Konoha's ninja to begin mobilizing.

Shizune watched Tsunade return to work when she remembered something from earlier. "You remember the city-state Manila right? The ones that sold us our Chakra cables, you know the new messaging system for all of the countries? They sent us a cable offering some support. They offered supplies, new weapons, and a bunch of other new technologies in case the Akatsuki surfaced. I think they extended this offer to all the other countries."

Tsunade turned towards Shizune. "Why didn't you mention this before? Accept and ask if they can spare anything else."

Shizune nodded. "Aren't you a little surprised that they offered though? Normally they try to remain neutral."

Tsunade nodded. "True, but they hate the Akatsuki as well. Also understand that Manila is independent. They have no Kings or Nobles, but they have a lot of powerful companies and corporations. They don't want to fight, but they will want to sell us war materials."

"Have you ever been there Tsunade? Before you took me up as an apprentice I mean."

"Yes, it was a beautiful city; it's been on some hard times lately and not quite so beautiful, but there are many rich people and I was hoping to make it big and lost everything, again. They are very advanced and extremely corrupt as well. All it is now is a giant crime ridden city, but the people that do live there are generally good people, but their scared, so they don't complain in fear of criminals. The city is also on a peninsula and the only times they been invaded, once by us and twice by Kirigakure and Kumo, they've repelled them." Tsunade finished up a letter and passed it to Shizune. "Send this to Gaara. Also, word to Jiraiya, we're going to need him for this war"

"Yes Tsunade." Shizune turned and hurried out of her office.

Tsunade stood up and walked over to the window staring down at the village that her Grandfather built. 'This will probably be the last thing I do before retiring.' Tsunade thought. 'God, I hope they find Naruto though.'

Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tenzo were staring at a map in an inn on the road to Kumo.

Kakashi pointed at a point on the map. "This is the closest Kumo military base. We could head there an offer our support."

"Or we could head straight to the capitol. They have railways that connect to all of Kumo. We could easily get anywhere the Akatsuki are." Tenzo suggested.

"What about Naruto? Are we going to look for him first or last?" Sakura asked.

"The council will want to ignore Naruto, but if we can find him, we can convince them that he's a valuable asset and needs to be protected or needs to be reinstated in the military. If we get him back in the military, Tsunade will protect him until she can make a more permanent deal with the council." Sasuke said.

"We will get him back before returning to Konoha. I promise you that." Kakashi said.

"Well we better get moving." Tenzo said.

"Yeah the next Shinobi war is about to begin and I don't want to miss it." Sasuke said.

"Let's go Team Kakashi!" Kakashi ordered.


	8. Chapter 8

Quick note: Naruto can use chakra, but in the prison his chakra is blocked as with all of the other inmates. As for the other fights, he just didn't want to use it. Sorry for not making that clear.

Underneath Lake Mami, Itachi stood on top of the Nanabi and waiting for the others. All of a sudden, Pein, Konan, Gannon, Kisame, Tobi, and Zetsu appeared.

Pein looked around noticing the ascent members. "Where are Deidara and Amuru?"

"Deidara is dead. The Raikage killed him as he was attacking Kumogakure." Zetsu said. "There also preparing an army to meet us here in a few days. Some scout units may be coming in soon."

"Amuru ran off as we destroyed their base. I don't know if we will see her again." Gannon said.

"We'll need to find her later." Konan said.

"Forget it. For now we need to concentrate on finding the Nine-tails." Pein said. "Has anyone got an idea where he is?"

"I found traces of the Nine-tails chakra. I'm following the trail right now. If Samehada is correct, I'll find it in a few hours." Kisame said.

"Excellent. Continue on the trail. You are dismissed Kisame."

Kisame nodded and vanished.

Pein turned to Tobi. "Tobi, meet me at my location. I'm taking control of the Eight-tails and you're going to take the One-tailed."

Tobi saluted. "Aye, aye, master Pein." Tobi vanished after that.

"Gannon, I want you to go to Route 8 and watch for any reinforcement coming from Suna or Konoha."

Gannon bowed. "Yes Pein."

"Zetsu, continue spying let me know if anything happens."

"Pein, we do have something to report. Kumo sent word of our exploits to the other countries and all of them are sending forces." The black half of Zetsu said.

"Don't worry Pein. We have the all Eight of the tailed beast with us. We won't lose." White Zetsu said.

"We need to be prepared Zetsu. Find out when the reinforcements are set to arrive." Pein ordered.

Zetsu bowed and left Konan, Itachi, and Pein in the cave.

"Now Itachi, we'll be here in one hour with the tailed beasts. Prepare yourself, for we need to kill the Raikage and his army if we want to buy the time to capture the Nine-tailed."

"It will be done Pein."

"Good. Let's go Konan." Pein and Konan vanished and Itachi was left alone with the Nanabi.

"Best prepare for the Raikage." Itachi said aloud. "We're going to need all the firepower we can get."

Naruto, Gin, Mari, and several others sat in the back of a cell block, out of sight from the other inmates and guards.

Gin stood up. "So we are about to begin the operation that will get us out of here and hopefully make a better Kumo in the process. We have the supplies needed to traverse the Badlands and we got a map detailing where all the new lakes are. All we need now is a small explosive charge to blow a hole in the wall for us to escape. Now, Arata and Shin, you're going to steal it. Takara, you know explosives best. You're gonna plant it." Gin sat back down. "Anything you want to add Mari?"

Mari stood up. "Everyone, be careful. If we get split up while escaping, follow the North Star to the first lake. We'll meet you there." Mari paused and looked around the room, gazing at all the people under her command. "Our children will look back on this day and they will remember it as the day Kumo changed for the better. Let's do this."

Everyone stood up and left. Mari walked over to Naruto. "Please be careful Arata."

"I will." Naruto promised. Mari left and Naruto turned to Shin. "Let's do this Shin."

"Yeah, I already got an idea too. Follow me." Shin said.

The two men walked outside just as the sun was beginning to sink. Shin stopped and pointed to a building built on top of the wall enclosing the prison. "See that building up there? That's where the key is. You wait here while I climb up. I'll pass you the key and the weapon storage is right up there by the far corner of the fort. I'll meet you there. Try not to look suspicious by the way."

"Got it. I'll stand here for a few minutes before walking over and catching the keys. Good luck."

Shin sprinted at the wall and grabbed onto it. He then threw himself up into the air and caught another part of the wall before hauling himself onto the rampant and he quickly slipped inside. 'Interesting climbing technique' Naruto thought.

Naruto waited thirty seconds before walking over, but rather than dropping the keys for Naruto, Shin jumped off and landed next to Naruto.

"What happened? Why didn't you just pass me the keys like we planned?"

Shin scrambled to his feet. "Take the keys. I need to report something to Lady Mari right now. Sorry to leave you like this, but I need to tell her something." Shin gave Naruto the keys and sprinted off to find Mari.

Naruto walked over to where the armory was and scrambled up the wall and snuck by the sleeping guard and unlocked the armory door. Naruto glanced at the guard. 'Guess he didn't expect anyone up here.' He thought. He slipped through the doors and found the charges easily enough. Naruto also noticed a box of kunai and grabbed them as well. 'You never know.' Naruto thought.

He slipped past the guard easily enough and hopped down before heading back to the group.

Naruto walked right up to Gin and handed him the explosives. "Got it and I picked this up too." Naruto handed Gin the kunai.

Gin accepted it. "Good work. Shin also learned some disturbing news. Kumo and the world is now at war with the Akatsuki."

Naruto looked at him in alarm. "What do you mean? I thought they were just a group?"

Gin shook his head. "Shin stole a newspaper and the prisons orders while he was up there. We don't know much about them because we've been in here for so long. You know anything? The newspaper said that they've attacked the capital, burned several smaller villages to the ground, and have sacked a military base. It also said that all the other Ninja nations are sending help. My how the times changed, that was unheard of a few years ago."

"All I know about them is they want the tailed-beasts. That's all."

"About as much as we know. We can use this to our advantage though when we escape, for now get some rest and let Mari and I worry about this."

"Sounds good." Naruto turned and walked to his cot, wishing Mari was with him.

Several hours later, Naruto woke with a jolt as Gin shook him awake. "Wake up Arata and be quiet. We're busting out of here."

Naruto was immediately awake and alert. "Good." He whispered.

Gin woke up Wong and then dashed down the cell block to wake the others.

Naruto and Wong crept toward the exit of the cell block. They saw several others crouching down and joined them. Naruto strained his eyes, trying to see into the dark night. "Can you see anything?" Naruto whispered.

"No. We should have tried to leave when the moon was full." Wong glanced up in the sky. "It's cloudy too. It's going to be pitch black up ahead."

Gin returned. "They're all ready. Takara already set the charge. Shin and a few others went to go look out for the guards and delay them if necessary."

Everyone waited in tense silence as they waited for an explosion to signal to them it was time to go. After several minutes of waiting, a massive booming noise sounded off throughout the prison. Gin leapt up and ran toward the explosion. "Everyone run! Meet us at the rally point!" Gin yelled.

Naruto sprinted forward. It didn't take him long to realize that something seemed amiss. _Where are the guards? _He wondered. Naruto got his answer in a few minutes, when several guards began racing toward them. Naruto continued running when he stopped right at where the hole was. Standing between the prisoners and their freedom, were eight Kumo ANBU ninja. Several others before Naruto had tried running pass them and all of them were down before the ANBU squads. Naruto noticed Shin and a few others tied up and another person from the gang standing untied over them. It didn't take Naruto long to realize that they had been betrayed.

Gin and a few others charged forward with several improvised weapons they had made before, but none of them were any match for ninja using chakra.

One of the ANBU stepped forward. "Now all of you will not be punished as long as you hand over your ringleader, Mari, and any others involved with this pathetic attempt at a jail-break."

Fear overtook Naruto when he realized that Mari and him would most likely not make it if they were handed over to them. Before he could do anything drastic, Wong tugged on his sleeve. "Arata, look up. Above the partially destroyed wall."

Naruto followed Wong's gaze and noticed one of the statues made to block the chakra for the inmates and noticed it was off. "If you turn it back on, the ANBU won't be able to use chakra. We can use chakra too, but were no match for them right now. Some of us haven't used chakra in years." Wong said.

"How could I turn it back on?" Naruto said. As he was saying that, several others charged by. This time the ANBU were using blades to cut down the prisoners.

"Just tape the button on top of the statue." And with that said, Naruto charged the wall and scrambled up it in seconds. Naruto raced for the statue and smashed the top of it. The statue quickly lighted up.

"Go! Their chakra is blocked!" He shouted.

With that all of the prisoners rushed the ANBU, the ANBU, thinking it was a bluff, quickly fell beneath the stampede of prisoners. Naruto spotted Mari untie Gin and a few others before racing off into the dark. _Time to go. _He thought.

Naruto jumped down from the wall before realizing that dozens of the guards had were racing towards him. A wave of dread swept over Naruto as he realized something. _I'm not getting out of here anytime soon. _He thought glumly. Naruto got into a fighting stance, a stance he had been taught a few years ago when he began to travel the world again, and prepared for a fight.

Naruto launched himself at the first few guards and tackled several of them to the ground. Naruto was up on his feet in seconds and kicked a guard in his stomach. Most of the guards had ran past him to look for the escapees, but nearly ten of them stayed behind to tend to the ANBU's wounds and make sure the prisoners on the ground didn't attempt to escape. However, four guards attacked Naruto and after a brief fight, Naruto was knocked out.

"What do we do with them?" A guard asked.

"Put them back in their cell blocks. Let's hope we can get the prisoners back before the Raikage hears about this."

"These damn ANBU should have told us about this. Had they we could have prevented this."

"We'll figure it out soon. For now just patrol this breach and drag the prisoners back here. We'll interrogate them tomorrow."

Kisame continued his hunt for the Nine-Tails. After a few hours of tracking him, he believed he was close. _Just a few more miles and I'll find him._ Kisame thought. The land had changed dramatically, no longer was he near the sea, but near mountains. A long ways away, he saw a giant desert. _Just wait Nine-Tails._ _I'll be there soon._

Kakashi, Sakura, Tenzo, and Sasuke had been traveling nonstop to Kumo. After nearly a day and a half, they had reached the border.

Kakashi stopped and signaled the rest of his team to stop as well. "We need to rest. We'll stop here for a few hours and then move on in the morning. Tenzo, could you make some shelter?"

"I am sorry, but if you want me to fight tomorrow I'll need to save my chakra."

"No problem. Everyone, throw down your mats and get some sleep." Kakashi ordered.

Sasuke was just setting down his mat, when out of the shadows a beast charged him. Sasuke grabbed his sword and in a few moments the beast lay dead at his feet. Several other beasts stepped into the light of a fire Kakashi had made and Sasuke saw that they were made out of shadows.

"Ahh, so here are the first casualties from Konoha." A voice said out in the darkness. "Tonight is your last night."

The team of Konoha ninja brandished swords and kunai. "Show yourself." Sakura demanded.

"Very well." A man stepped out of the shadow, a man that dwarfed all of them there. He was carrying a long sword and Sasuke could make out seals on him. "I am Gannon. The last name you'll ever learn." And with that more monsters rushed out of the shadows and Konoha's first engagement began.


	9. Chapter 9

Sasuke was back to back with Kakashi trying to fight back against the Shadow creatures Gannon had created. Sasuke had just sliced through his tenth one when Kakashi spoke up. "This is getting ridiculous. We kill one and another takes its place."

"At least were holding up." Sasuke's eyes looked around the battle ground. Gannon was standing on a boulder watching the fighting unfold before him. "He still hasn't stepped in."

"He's letting his summons wear us down. I don't know how we can stop him right now."

Sasuke scanned the area with his Sharigan. "Kakashi, do you see the chakra coming from his body? I see most of it from his arms."

Kakashi ducked as one of the summons swung his arm at him. "Yeah, I noticed that too. They might have something to do with these things."

Suddenly, Sasuke heard a nasty crack and cry for help. Whipping his head around to see the source, he froze when he saw Tenzo lying on the ground. Just as he was about to dash over to help him, Sasuke felt a blow to his shoulder and was thrown violently to his side. Standing over him was Gannon.

"You know you shouldn't leave yourself open like that." Gannon stood over him and in Gannon's hand were knuckledusters made out of the same shadowy material as the summons were. Gannon lifted his hands and before Sasuke's eyes, the knuckledusters transformed into a large broadsword. "And know you die."

Before Gannon could finish Sasuke off, a gust of wind blew through the area, throwing dust into the air. The sound of metal striking metal crashed through the air. Sasuke opened his eyes and for a few seconds, couldn't see anything, even with his Sharigan.

"Well it's been a while, Uchiha."

As the dust cleared, Sasuke saw who his savior was. It was Kankuro's puppet, the Crow. "Where the hell did you come from?"

Kankuro jumped besides Sasuke. "Grateful as always, we were on our way to meet the Raikage. We saw your team and decided to help out." Kankuro looked out towards Gannon. "So what do we have here?"

"Stay back he's mine." Sasuke said. Struggling to stand, Sasuke noticed that Crow had managed to slash Gannon across the arm, revealing tattoos that looked a lot like seals. "Don't do anymore, like I said he's mine."

Across the field, Temari was fighting against several of the summons. With several well placed wind attacks, they began to die slowly. Sakura was attending to Yamato and Kakashi and two other Sand ninja, Baki and another female shinobi Sakura didn't recognize.

Sakura has checked Tenzo's wounds, fearing the worst and relieved that all he had was a cracked rib. _He should be alright later_. She thought. Sakura turned back towards the battle and watched as the Sand Shinobi used several wind techniques to destroy the summons and the earth around them. Kakashi stood guard over her and glanced at Yamato.

"Is he alright?"

Sakura nodded. "He should be in a few minutes. All he has is a cracked rib and he might have a mild concussion. I'll double check later when the fighting is done."

Kakashi nodded and turned to watch Sasuke fight.

"Umm, Kakashi-sensei, don't you think you should try and help the others."

Kakashi chuckled. "If I do I might pass out from Chakra exhaustion."

"Oh."

Back across the field, Sasuke was still trying to bring down Gannon, but no matter how hard he tried Gannon couldn't be touched. Eventually, Kankuro joined in to with Crow, but even then they couldn't land a finishing blow.

Eventually, Gannon swung his sword cutting off Crow's head. "You are both very skilled, but you shouldn't hide behind a puppet." Gannon said.

"Don't underestimate me and Crow." Kankuro said. Kankuro pulled out a scroll summoned another puppet, but rather than join the fight, it disassembled itself and parts of the puppet flew over to Crow and began repairing and armoring Crow. In just a few seconds, Crow had been repaired, armored, and had a new weapon, an axe. Kankuro made Crow whip around and began slashing at Gannon at a far faster rate than before.

Not wanting to be left out, Sasuke formed the hand seals and launched a fireball had Gannon.

Kankuro had Crow leap into the air and launch a net trap at Gannon. Gannon was entangled in the net just as Sasuke's fireball hit Gannon.

Sasuke was panting slightly. "That should be the end of that."

"Not quite." Gannon was still standing, but was cloaked in shadows. However, the shadows receded from Gannon and vanished.

"How did you survive that attack?" Sasuke demanded.

"Simple, I had the shadows form a shield around me. Unfortunately I used up most of my chakra and now it's time for me to depart."

"Like hell we'll let you!" Kankuro shouted.

"Don't worry. We'll see each other soon and next time you won't be quite so lucky."

Gannon slowly faded into the shadows as did his summons and in a few moments, the area was quiet again.

Sasuke scanned the area with his Sharigan, looking for any sign of Gannon. "I think he's gone."

Kankuro returned Crow to his scroll. "Come on let's check up on the others."

The two returned to the other five. Kakashi had begun preparing a fire and Sakura and the other girl were tending to Tenzo, who was still unconscious.

"What happened to him?" Kankuro asked.

"Nothing to serious, just a broken rib, and a minor concussion from when his head hit the ground." Sakura said. Sakura turned towards them and glanced up and down the two. "What happened to your arm Sasuke?"

"That Akatsuki got a hit in earlier, its nothing." Sasuke said.

"Let me see."

"I should be alright."

"No, come here and let me look at it now." Sakura growled.

Kankuro smirked. "It didn't look like nothing when I rushed in to save your ass."

Sasuke scowled, but went over to Sakura anyway.

After several minutes, Sakura gave him the all clear and Sasuke went over by the fire and was asleep in no time.

_The end of this hunt is here. Now the fighting begins._ Kisame thought. He had tracked Nine-tails Chakra for nearly two days and at last he could sense the end of the line. Approaching a cave he casually entered. Walking into the dark, Kisame sent chakra to his eyes and in seconds, Kisame had perfect night vision.

However, another creature sensed Kisame as well and in the cave, Kisame made out two glowing eyes followed by a cloak of red chakra.

Kisame stared, bemused at what he saw, stared at what he had been tracking. "You're not the Nine-Tails." He declared after staring at the abomination before him. Rather than the blond jinchūriki he was expecting, he saw a boy around the same age, but with shoulder length dark, bluish hair, and one of his hands looked like a monsters hand rather than human one. Standing before Kisame, was Sora, a Pseudo-jinchūriki.

Akatsuki spies had learned about him a long time ago. He was cast out of the Fire Monk's temple after an incident seven years ago. Pein had ordered any Akatsuki member to kill him on sight.

Kisame grinned. "Well at least I don't have to worry about leaving you alive. Hopefully we can have a little fun before you die."

Sora let out a growl and dashed forward and reared his hand back to cut Kisame in half. Kisame just laughed. "Come on. Do something a little different." Catching Sora's hand with one hand, Kisame sent some chakra into his arm and with the added strength from the chakra, tossed Sora straight into the cave's ceiling. Several stalactites collapsed from the ceiling, falling with Sora.

Disappointed, Kisame walked over to cut Sora up with Samehada, but before killing Sora, Sora reacted slamming his fists into Kisame's chest making him lose his balance for a second.

But only for a second, Kisame almost immediately recovered and this time no lucky shot was going to stop him from killing Sora. Concentrating chakra in his feet, Kisame lashed out with a kick and was rewarded with a satisfying crack from Sora's femur bone. Sora let out a howl of pain and collapsed to the floor once more. This time there would be no getting up. Acting quickly, Kisame reached down, grabbed Sora's neck and gave it a little twist. Another crack echoed throughout the cave and Sora didn't move again.

Kisame stood up. "I better report this to Pein."

Far away from Sora's grave, near Lake Mami, Itachi finished his preparations for the Raikage's army. The Raikage had consolidated his forces and was now heading toward Itachi with an army of two-thousand, nearly a fifth of Kumo's army.

_Today the Raikage will die, as will his army. _Itachi thought.

Pein had come by and ripped out the Eight-Tails from Killer Bee. Since they didn't have to seal it away, it was ready to go immediately. Pein had given control of the One-Tailed to Tobi, who ran off to fight Iwa's army. Pein had taken control of the Eight-Tails the same way he had taken over the others, by driving chakra receivers into them, just as he did to control the other five Pein bodies, but those were deactivated and Pein, in his Deva path, was controlling six tailed beasts. It was a feat only a god could do.

"Are you ready Itachi?" Pein asked. He had concealed himself, waiting for the Raikage to appear. With him out of the way, the Akatsuki could plunder Kumo and take on the rest of the Five shinobi nations while Kisame searched for the Nine-Tailed.

"I am ready Pein." Itachi answered back. "Are you and Konan ready?"

"Yes. Now, I can sense the Raikage. He'll be in range in several minutes." And with that the connection with Pein stopped and Itachi was left alone to prepare for what would be one of the largest slaughters in Shinobi history.

Only a half a mile away, A was readying his army for a charge. In just a few days, the Raikage had created one of the largest armies ever and they were preparing to get Bee back. Standing before his army, A began to prepare his army. "Ready yourselves men! Today we eradicate the scum of the Earth, the Akatsuki! Now charge!"

A jumped in front of his army and in seconds he spotted one of the Akatsuki devils. _Itachi Uchiha of Konoha, today you breathe your last_. A thought savagely.

The mind connection between Pein and Itachi had started up again.

"Ready Itachi?"

"Ready Pein."

"Let down the genjutsu then." Pein ordered.

Itachi made a raised his hand and released his genjutsu.

A and his army could only stare in horror at what lay before them. Itachi's genjutsu had revealed seven tailed beasts, all seven of them had charged up a tailed beast blast.

Before A could give any order, Itachi and Pein released the blasts and the Raikage and his army was decimated with seven tailed beast blasts. A and countless others received the brunt of the blasts, wiping out A's army. Within a minute, the once beautiful land of Lake Mami was a destroyed wasteland. Nearly all of the army was vaporized in seconds, mountains shifted, and whoever was left was in no shape to fight. Screams for help dotted the landscape, but nothing was left.

Itachi flew over the battlefield surveying the destruction. "Pein, I see no signs of resistance and I suspect 90% casualties among the Kumo nin. I don't see any sign of the Raikage."

"I sense him. Finish off any large group and let some go to spread the word that we've crushed the Raikage and their army."

Pein approached the Raikage and looked down on him. Pein saw the Raikage's legs were blown clear off. The rest of his body looked like raw hamburger meat. "A shame you won't see the next era. It will be an era of peace for all nations, whether they want it or not."

The Raikage looked up at Pein, tears were clouding his eyes. "You bastard. Do you think anyone will listen to you after they hear about this?"

"I imagine they won't have much choice. Good-bye Raikage." Pein brought down his chakra receiver and the Raikage gave one last struggle before breathing his last. The fourth Raikage, one of the strongest shinobi ever, was dead and so was his army.

Far from the battlefield, on top of the mountain peaks to the far west of Iwa, a man was sitting in his fortress writing.

Our plan is proceeding better than expected; soon the world will be united under a new nation, a nation that will bring peace to the world. Pein was a very effective tool for us, a crude tool, but an effective one. He is not meant to lead, but he is allowing this new nation to take its first step, its first breath we will be there to guard it, to make sure it succeeds. We true ninja, not these warriors of the Land of Fire, Water, Sand, Lighting, and Earth. They claim to be ninja, but would a true ninja attack nations head on? No, they would bring down nations through fear, assassinations, not head on assaults like in the past, but fight through secret, without using chakra to completely annihilate nations. But enough of my ranting, these nations will combine and combine and they will be nearly unstoppable.

I have lived a long time, 600 years by my last count, and never have I felt so optimistic of the future. I saw the clan wars, the first, second, and thirds shinobi wars, and countless other conflicts. But that is not all of my problems, I still seek a successor, someone to take my place should I pass away, but I have found no worthy successor. Nor have I sired an heir to take my place as all of my children have been daughters, not sons. Another problem that is plaguing me is Manila, a city corrupt to the core. For whatever reason, they were blessed with technologies beyond the five shinobi nations, but they are evil to the very foundation of that cesspool. If we are to create a new nation, free of corruption, crime, and countless other grievances, this city needs to go. How? I do not know, not yet though, soon I will find a mean.

On another note, I may have found a new recruit, a man imprisoned in Kumo. An interesting story behind him, son of the fourth Hokage, he was robbed of his parents at the tender age of a few hours old. He then became their jinchūriki and was eventually banished. Then it all turned around for him. He was adopted and raised properly, but now he is residing in prison. That can be fixed quickly as we have spies all throughout the ninja nations, but I will go and meet him personally. Hopefully I won't be disappointed.


	10. Chapter 10

It had been nearly two weeks since the Raikage and his army was destroyed. Now the Akatsuki were targeting more military bases and Kumo's infrastructure with the tailed beasts, hoping to destroy the strongest military power on the continent before taking on the other four.

Tsunade had just received word that the Raikage had been killed and that Kakashi's team had reached Kumo. The reason why she was just receiving this was because communications had been knocked out with Kumo for a while.

Tsunade had been given permission from the council and the Fire Daimyo to wage total war with the Akatsuki and anywhere they might be and now it was time to strike back. Darui, Kumo's temporary commander-in-chief, had given permission to the other 4 nations to deploy troops to Kumo. All the others agreed to allow the same. Tsunade had sent the other part of the Konoha 11(Sasuke's generation minus Naruto) to reinforce Kakashi. She had also begun to call up all of Konoha's reserve Nin and had sent nearly 300 ninja consisting of Jonin and Chunin to Kumo. Gaara had done the same. Iwagakure had been battling the One-tailed with nearly 1000 Shinobi and their Kage, Shin. Shin had taken over for Onoki several years ago. He was nearly as strong as the fourth Raikage and he had learned to use Dust techniques to. The Mizukage had sent the least amount of troops, but she had left to fight alongside the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist. Tsunade had almost left to fight, but had decided she should stay behind and defend Konoha.

Tsunade sat behind her desk enjoying some Sake and filling out deployment papers for several ninja.

Shizune was there as well running papers back and forth. "You look trouble Tsunade. Is there something I can do?" Shizune asked.

"No, I was just deep in thought."

"About what? If I may ask."

Tsunade leaned back in her chair. "I think I'm going to retire after this war Shizune. Once we win, I'm just going to relax all the time."

Shizune smiled. "Well I hope that motivates you to finish up your work faster. Who do you plan to appoint afterwards?"

Tsunade just smiled.

Shizune's smiled vanished. "Are you thinking about Naruto succeeding you?"

"Why the long face Shizune? It's been his dream forever."

"But we don't know if he wants that. What if he's moved on from that? The village banished him Tsunade. What makes you think he'll want to come back?"

Tsunade waved her off. "You don't see it very well Shizune, but even has Naruto was standing before the council during his hearing. I could tell he still loved Konoha and when we find him you'll see and where ever he is, I'm sure he's happy."

* * *

12 years ago.

It had been nearly two weeks since Naruto had been banished. Naruto had begun to wonder the world, lost in his own grieve and unsure what to do. He had wondered into Iwa and he had walked down route 192, the road to the West. Unknown to Naruto, some of the rarest and most dangerous creatures dwelled here. However, he had already entered an inn and was residing there when the roaring began.

Dragons, they were the creatures here.

Naruto had just sat down at a table at the inn. There were several people there all eating and drinking. Hearing the roar, Naruto turned pale and he began to panic when images from when he was a child being terrorized by a man wearing an ANBU wearing a dragon mask began to surface.

The waitress had walked over to his table. "Are you okay kid?"

Naruto continued to sweat, but meekly he responded. "Yeah, those dragons, they can't get here right?"

The waitress just laughed. "Oh, don't worry about that. They do that every night. Anyway, can I get you anything?"

"I'm not hungry anymore."

The waitress sighed. "Come on kid, don't worry about it. I've worked here for six years and lived around this area for 14 years and nobody has died from a dragon."

But Naruto had jumped up from his table and ran to his room. Racing to the bathroom, he emptied his stomach contents in the toilet and began to hyperventilate.

Naruto woke with a start, breathing slightly heavier than normal.

Wong was up already up and watching for any other prisoners or guards. Since the escape, the guards had gotten a lot jumpier with the war and the escape. Not only that they had cut rations to the prisoners and had armed themselves with new weapons. These weapons looked slightly like crossbows and fired chakra pulses. The pulses fired rapidly and were quite deadly. Naruto had seen them before, but had never seen a ninja use one before.

"You had dream?" Wong asked

"Nightmare." Naruto replied as he sat up from his cot.

"Worse than this place?"

Naruto didn't say anything. He stood up and went to stand in line for breakfast.

Wong followed him in line, staying close to Naruto protection. In the past few weeks, the other inmates had begun to fight and kill members of Mari's gang that had failed to escape or had been recaptured. Naruto had to fight several members off including Gordo.

"I heard Gordo's going to fight you." Wong said.

"Again?"

"Until they kill you." Wong said.

Naruto had just arrived and had been poured a plate of watery gruel. "Can they kill me before breakfast?"

Luckily Naruto didn't have to worry about that for long as Gordo had just walked up and smashed Naruto's breakfast to the ground.

Gordo smiled viciously. "You are in hell little man." Gordo punched Naruto right in the jaw and grabbed Naruto's hair, holding him up in front of himself. "And I am the devil." Gordo punched Naruto again, forcing Naruto to the ground.

Naruto stood back up. "You're not the devil." Naruto replied.

Gordo spat on the ground, preparing to kill Naruto.

"You're practice for the devil."

Gordo threw a punch straight at Naruto's face again, but Naruto was ready this time. Ducking Gordo's punch, Naruto brought up his elbow into Gordo's face and head butted him before Gordo could recover.

Gordo crumbled to the ground, unconscious.

Another man, part of Gordo's gang, rushed forward to attack Naruto. Naruto grabbed him by the arm and spun him around and crashed him into the table they were serving the gruel on. Naruto reached back to knock him out just like Gordo, but before he could he was swarmed by several other gang members, all with the intent of tearing Naruto apart.

Thinking fast, Naruto put his feet on the table and pushed off the table. Naruto and the other men tumbled down a small hill and landed in the mud.

Naruto grabbed one of his attacker's legs and began to drag him through the mud. Before he could finish him off, he was punched in the face by another one of Gordo's accomplish, forcing him to let go of the other inmates leg.

The inmate that had just tried to punch him than tried to kick him in the ribs. Catching the kick, Naruto grabbed it and gave it a twist and a crack was heard and the inmate screamed in pain and collapsed on the ground.

But the fighting wasn't over. Another inmate rushed Naruto from behind and tried to choke the life out of him. Naruto grabbed him from behind and flipped him to the ground in front of him. Two other inmates joined in and rushed Naruto and Naruto threw up both of his hands into their faces, throwing them both into the ground. Another rushed in to tackle Naruto and Naruto simply grabbed him and flipped him over, but fell to the ground in the process.

Falling into the mud, Naruto rolled over and began to pummel one of his assailants from earlier, straight into unconscious.

Before he could finish them off, loud cracks began filling the air. The guards had decided to step in and were firing their new weapons into the air like mad.

Naruto kneeled down knowing that if he resisted, he would get gunned down. However the guards grabbed him and began dragging him towards their guard quarters.

One of the ninja holding the crossbow shouted. "Solitary for him."

Now Naruto was a little nervous. Most of the inmates dragged off into solitary hadn't come out. "Why?" He asked.

"For protection." The guard replyed.

"I don't need protection." Naruto shot back.

"Protection for them." The guard pointed at the inmates Naruto had just fought. All of them were on the ground groaning in pain.

The guards dragged Naruto deep into solitary, unbolted a heavy iron door and threw him into his new cell and slammed the door shut.

There was very little light in the cell. A faucet was dripping water in the corner and the air smelled dank and musty. Naruto made his way over to the faucet to clean up a little bit.

"Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in with them to take them on one at a time?" A deep voice asked from the shadows of Naruto's cell.

Naruto scanned the shadows but he could not see the mysterious stranger. "Actually there were seven of them."

The mysterious stranger stepped out of the shadows. He was tall, at least six feet tall and his body looked powerfully built. "I counted six, Mr. Katsuo."

Naruto froze in shock at hearing that name. "How do you know that name?"

The man simply smiled. "Which name? Naruto Uzumaki? Naruto Katsuo? Or your new name, Arata? The world is just too small for someone like Naruto Katsuo to disappear. No matter how deep he attempts to sink."

Naruto was still shocked and for several seconds just stood there staring at this man. "Who are you?" He finally said.

"My name is Nazo, but I speak for a Ra's Akuma, greatly feared by the underworld, a man who can offer you a path."

Naruto scoffed. "What makes you think I need a path?"

Nazo looked around Naruto's cell. "Someone like you is only here by choice. You have been exploring the criminal fraternity, but whatever your original intentions, you have become truly lost."

Naruto looked up to Nazo. "And what path can this Ra's Akuma offer?"

"A path of a man who shares your hatred of evil and wishes to serve true justice, the path of the League of Shadows."

Naruto just scoffed again. "Vigilantes."

"No, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed or locked up." Nazo moved his arms around indicating the prison Naruto was in. "But." Nazo crouched down, eye level to Naruto. "If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you. Then you become something else entirely."

For several seconds silence filled the cell. Finally, for what seemed like an eternity Naruto whispered. "Which is?"

"Legend, Mr. Katsuo." Nazo stood up and strode his way to the door. Turning back he said. "Tomorrow you will be released. If you are bored of brawling with petty thieves and want to achieve something, there is a deserted temple far to the south-east of here with several crystals inside. Take one of these crystals. It will tell you where to go and you may find what you are looking for."

"Wait, what was I looking for?"

Nazo turned back toward Naruto. "Only you can know that."

The next day Naruto was hauled off on a carriage and then put on a train, speeding westward. Naruto had been given some new clothes and a watery gruel to eat. Finally, the train began to slow down and Naruto wondered if this was his stop.

Before he could ask, he was tossed head first out of the train and the train quickly sped up, leaving Naruto alone.

Dusting himself off he stood up and began heading in the direction Nazo had directed a day earlier.

* * *

Several days had passed since Kakashi's team with Gannon and his team was getting restless. So far they had done was patrol Kumo's capitol and watch out for the Akatsuki.

Sakura had helped out in the hospital and Tenzo had helped out with some of the repairs. Kakashi had his book and Sasuke was starting to get annoyed with their situation.

He glared at Kakashi. "Isn't there something we can do? The Akatsuki are out there and were stuck on guard duty."

Kakashi didn't even glance at Sasuke and kept his eyes glued to his book. "We've been placed under Kumo's command. When they need us, they'll call us."

"But they have plenty of guards. There's like 50 ninja for every block."

Kakashi continued on reading. "Their Kage was just killed and they lost thousands of ninja already, of course their going to keep a massive amount of guards around. They also don't want a power struggle for the Kage so their keeping troops around to stamp out any insurrection before it forms."

Sakura and Tenzo walked over with a Kumo Chunin. "We have a mission for you." The Chunin announced. "Straight from our council, good luck." The Chunin handed Kakashi a envelope.

"Any news on your new Kage?" Sakura asked.

"I think so. One female ninja is going before the council right now. Her father contested with A for the job a long time ago. I got to run though. Good luck on your mission."

The Chunin ran off leaving the Konoha ninja alone. "So what's the mission Senpai?" Tenzo asked.

"Kumo believes there is an Akatsuki member on top of a mountain in the north. They want us to investigate and then eliminate them if they're there." Kakashi explained

"Does it mention which one they think is up there?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi looked a little uneasy. "Yes, they think its Itachi Uchiha."

* * *

Naruto had traveled for several days heading south-east. After a harrowing journey, he had arrived at the temple Nazo had told him about. Naruto turned around and saw the sea behind him. In the distance he saw a familiar sight. Manila, the city is adopted parents were from and where he was from.

'One day I'll return, but today isn't the day.' Naruto thought. He turned around and faced the temple doors. They were tall and a giant symbol was on the door, a swirl, just like the one he had on his orange jacket over a decade ago.

He spent several minutes examining and trying to open the door. Eventually he deduced that the door needed a tribute, blood. Shrugging, Naruto took out a small knife and made an incision on his hand. He smeared his blood on what he assumed was the right place.

The doors groaned and swung open for the first time in decades, welcoming Naruto to the temple.

After searching around for a minute, Naruto found the crystal he was searching for and walked over to the wall of the temple. Naruto found a slot for the crystal to go into and Naruto inserted it into the slot. The temple began to hum as it came to life, lighting the entire room in an eerie blue light.

Naruto also noticed that the lights on the wall began forming a map of the world. He saw all the major lands, but one spot glowed more prominently than others on the map. It was far to the east in Iwa on top of the largest mountain in the continent, Mt. Hrothgar.

Naruto made a sketch of the map and pulled the crystal out of the wall and made his way to the exit just as the room went dark again.

Naruto glanced over the map and the crystal before tucking them into his pocket. 'Better get moving.'


	11. Chapter 11

Team Kakashi was rushing straight to Mount Fukushu, the last sighting of Itachi Uchiha. Everyone was silent, but all of them were wondering what Sasuke would do when they found Itachi.

Finally, Kakashi broke the silence. "Sasuke, what do you plan on doing when we meet Itachi?"

Sasuke was silent for several seconds. "I don't know, but I do know that Itachi won't leave alive, but I need you to understand that I need to do it alone."

"I can't promise that Sasuke. We are a team and we will help you if you need it and you need to understand that I'm in charge of this team and we will step in if I think we need to."

Sasuke remained silent for the rest of the journey, but now the time for words had passed. They had arrived at Mount Fukushu.

Kakashi took the lead up the slope. "Fan out and look for any signs that Itachi has been here." He ordered.

After nearly an hour of overturning every rock on the mountain, Sasuke found the place. "Kakashi, Sakura, Tenzo, this is it. This is where Itachi is."

Standing before team Kakashi, was an old rotting temple. "I don't sense anything Sasuke." Kakashi said.

"You don't need to look far to find me, Kakashi." A familiar voice drawled.

Team Kakashi whipped around and came face to face with Itachi Uchiha and the Seven-tails.

"Itachi." Sasuke snarled.

"Little brother." Itachi looked over all of them. "So this is the force that Kumo sent to take me out. I was hoping for a few more ninja to test the Seven-tails."

"Leave the rest alone. I'm the only one you'll fight today."

"Do you really believe you can kill me? Pathetic, you should have come before me with the same eyes."

"I don't need to follow in your footsteps or see similar to you in any way to kill you."

"It looks like you'll get your one on one Sasuke. Sakura, Tenzo, and I will take out the Seven-tails. You can fight Itachi." Kakashi said. "Get ready Tenzo, Sakura."

Itachi ordered the Seven-tails to attack. However, the Seven-tails didn't respond, but then suddenly lashed out at Itachi instead of attacking Sasuke and the others.

"Your fight is with me." Sasuke rushed Itachi with his sword, slashing like a madman.

"So you wrestled the Seven-tails away from my control with your Sharigan. I'm impressed you could do that."

"There's a lot I can do with these eyes."

The Seven-tails began attacking Kakashi and the others, leaving Sasuke and Itachi alone to face off.

"This is the last time we fight Itachi." Sasuke declared.

"Are you saying that because you know you're going to die? Or because you think you have a chance in killing me? Like I said earlier; you need a stronger pair of eyes before you can fight me." Itachi said.

"I don't think you understand how much I despise you. That alone is enough to kill you."

"Then you should have been able to kill me years ago if your hate is so strong."

"Enough words. It's time for you to pay for what you did."

Sasuke charged up a Chidori and charged Itachi. Itachi performed several hand signs and shuriken formed from the air. Itachi released the shuriken and also launched a fireball, igniting the shuriken. Sasuke halted and performed his own hand signs and launched dozens of lightning senbon at the shuriken, deflecting most of the shuriken.

Sasuke then charged again, Chidori in hand and stabbed Itachi right in the heart. Before he could celebrate his victory, Itachi melted away forming right next to Sasuke with a kunai in hand. 'Genjutsu.' Sasuke realized.

"See, you are still too weak to face me."

Sasuke just smirked. "Am I?" Sasuke then exploded throwing Itachi back.

Itachi flipped through the air and landed on one knee. "So you learned the shadow clone technique and learned how to explode them. Am I supposed to be impressed? I could do that when I was just sixteen."

Sasuke ignored the jab and began slashing at Itachi. "And let's not forget your teammate; he made dozens of clones at the age of twelve."

Sasuke shifted uncomfortably. "What would you know about that? You murdered your best friend."

Itachi laughed. "And like you weren't about to? Where even is your 'best friend'? He was banished because of you and you don't even know if he's still alive. For all you know he might as well be dead."

Sasuke stopped swinging his sword. "It's true that it's my fault, but I will bring him back after I'm done here."

"Big words, not a lot of promise behind them." Itachi than performed seal far faster than any eye, even the Sharigan, could pick up. Water shot out of Itachi's hand and began whipping at wherever Sasuke stood. "Water whip attack." Itachi said.

Sasuke was soon on the defensive, trying to dodge the whip, but to no avail. Several cuts began forming on Sasuke. However, it was far from over. Sasuke charged his body with his lighting chakra. The next blow that landed from Itachi's whip sent electricity up the whip and into Itachi's arm, shocking him and causing him to release the whip.

Sasuke then closed the distance, hoping to keep this a close-quarters fight. Sasuke swung his sword right at Itachi's head. Itachi blocked it with one hand and his other hand went straight for Sasuke's arm. Itachi gave Sasuke's arm a twist and Sasuke's sword fell straight out of his hands. Itachi than brought his knee into Sasuke's stomach and threw him to the ground. Itachi grabbed a kunai and made a stab at Sasuke.

Just before it could connect, Sasuke twisted out of Itachi's grip and kicked him into the air. Sasuke began kicking Itachi several times, trying to end the battle with the Lion's combo, a technique that had won him several battles before.

Here it didn't work. Once again, Itachi used genjutsu to escape at the very last possible moment.

"Almost had me there Sasuke."

"Maybe if you didn't have so many escape moves this would have ended by now."

"Or maybe you don't have any finisher moves."

"What you've seen right now is just a fraction of my power."

"Then show me your power. "

"With pleasure." Sasuke created two other clones. The other two swiftly moved around Itachi forming a triangle. "Prepare for the end."

Itachi just threw a kunai at one of the clones, rather than disappear, it flickered. 'A genjutsu on a shadow clone.' Itachi thought. Before he could do anything else, lighting flickered all around the clones and charged forward at Itachi. Itachi simply jumped into the air. "You're going to need something less obvious than that if you want to kill me Sasuke."

"How about this!" The three Sasuke's then each fired a fireball up at Itachi. Itachi created a clone and used the clone to push himself out of the way. Right has he was passing the fireballs, lightning senbon shot out of the fireballs. However, the senbon failed to kill Itachi and only wounded him slightly.

Itachi closed his eyes and when he reopened them, the Mangekyō Sharigan had appeared. "It's times to finish this."

Sasuke was then captured in Itachi's eyes. The mountain top they had been fighting on disappeared. They were now back at the Uchiha district. Sasuke scanned the place and recognized the bodies of his family and his friends. Seeing this made his blood boil. "You think this technique can stop my anger, my dream?"

Itachi remained silent and unseen. Suddenly the bodies stood up and began walking forward to Sasuke. Sasuke froze 'I can't move'. The corpses grabbed onto Sasuke and began tearing him apart. Sasuke closed his eyes, and then reopened them only to find that they were back in Kumo.

Itachi clutched his eye. "How did you escape? That is the world's most powerful genjutsu."

"My hate will overcome anything you throw at me."

Itachi sighed. "Can your hate overcome this?" Black flames shot out and rushed to Sasuke. Amaterasu, the dreaded black flame, consumed Sasuke and the land, destroying everything it touched.

The burning was terrible, worse than anything Sasuke had ever felt. Sasuke wasn't done yet though, activating his cursed seal, Sasuke managed to contain the black flames to one of his wings. Without any hesitation, Sasuke chopped off one of the wings with Chidori.

By now both Itachi and Sasuke were exhausted. "That Amaterasu took a lot out of you." Sasuke said.

"And all those weak lightning attacks took almost all of your chakra." Itachi fired back.

"That's true, but in few minutes you'll be dead."

Not far where Itachi and Sasuke were fighting, Kakashi, Sakura, and Tenzo battled the Seven-tails. Earlier Kakashi had teleported the Nanabi's wing with his Sharigan. This grounded the Nanabi and allowed it to be restrained easier with Tenzo's wood technique. Sakura than dropped a boulder on it to make sure it stayed down.

Tenzo glanced over to where Sasuke was fighting. "I'm sensing his chakra going down drastically. So we check up on him?"

"No, if we did Sasuke would never forgive us." Sakura said.

"Sakura's right. Sasuke needs to finish this on his own." Kakashi said.

Sakura glanced at the crushed Nanabi. "Well let's get closer. I can barely see from here."

Tenzo and Kakashi agreed and all of them moved closer to the battle.

"This is it brother. This is the end and now you shall face judgment. Prepare for Kirin."

Above the two brothers, lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and rain pelted the two brothers, soaking the mountain.

"Impressive." Itachi murmured.

Kakashi and Sakura had seen this technique before and had no intention of being this close. "We need to move back now." Kakashi ordered.

"Why what is he about to do?" Tenzo asked.

"You'll see in a minute, but we need to take cover now." Sakura said.

The three dashed back several hundred meters. "Tenzo make some cover now!" Kakashi ordered.

Tenzo immediately created a wooden fort. "The fort is reinforced. Get in."

Kakashi and Sakura wasted no time in entering the bunker. Tenzo followed and sealed it off.

The sky continued to boom, shaking the ground. Sasuke raised his hand. "Disappear."

Itachi's eye's widened as he activated his Mangekyō Sharigan.

The ground once again shook as the lightning destroyed nearly half of the mountain and even in their bunker, Sakura's eyes lit up from the flash of Sasuke's lightning.

Sasuke collapsed to his knees. "It's over."

"Actually Sasuke, it's just beginning."

Sasuke froze in horror. "Impossible." He whispered.

Itachi stood up. Surrounding Itachi was a terrifying skeleton. "That was some technique. You even added a genjutsu to make it seem even faster but behold; the final and most powerful Mangekyō technique, Susanoo."

Itachi surveyed the area. "Very destructive, but I still need you to activate the Mangekyō." Itachi then turned toward Kakashi and the others. "So which one do I need to kill for you to wake the Mangekyō?"

Itachi began walking toward the others. Sasuke wasn't about to give up though. With no chakra remaining, Sasuke activated his curse seal and attempted to intercept Itachi. However, Itachi's Susanoo knocked him out of the way like a fly.

The others weren't about to give up either. Tenzo's wood technique slammed into Itachi. It was all in vain and didn't even slow Itachi down.

Sakura began chucking boulders at Itachi, but again it was all in vain.

"Guys run!" Sasuke screamed. "I'll hold him off."

"Do you think you can outrun me?" Itachi said. Itachi's Susanoo then smashed into Tenzo with its fist, nearly killing him.

Kakashi created several shadow clones and detonated trying to slow down Itachi. Itachi simply swept all the clones away along with Kakashi.

Itachi then turned towards Sakura. "Now it's your turn."

Sakura was in no mood to run and quickly preformed several hand signs and water gushed forward.

But everything was in vain, a simple sweep once again brushed away the water. Itachi turned toward Sasuke. "Watch as another friend dies." Itachi than grabbed Sakura and a simple squeeze from Susanoo was all it took for Sakura to go limp.

Sasuke groaned. Then he began to scream. Chakra began swirling around him, taking the shape of a skeleton just like Itachi.

"Finally." Itachi said.

Standing before Itachi was Sasuke and his Susanoo. Sasuke's Sharigan had taken a star look. Hate was pouring out from Sasuke. "You're going to pay Itachi." He snarled.

"Come on let's finish this."

Kakashi ran over to Sasuke. "Kakashi, get Sakura and Tenzo out of here, I'll handle him."

Kakashi quickly collected Sakura and Tenzo. He checked both of their pulses. "They're okay Sasuke."

Sasuke let out a sigh. "Thank god."

"I'll get them to a hospital, but Sasuke remember, he has more experience than you when it comes to the Mangekyō Sharigan. Also, it's going to damage your body. End this fight soon Sasuke." Kakashi said.

Sasuke nodded. "Go! I'll meet up with you later." Sasuke turned back towards Itachi and charged.

Itachi swung his sword and Itachi brought up his Susanoo's arm blocking the strike. (By the way Itachi's Susanoo does not have that over-powered sword and shield.) Sasuke activated his chidori spear and attempted to slash through Itachi.

After several moments of exchanging blow, Itachi and Sasuke both separated, both of them were exhausted and panting non-stop. Suddenly, Itachi's Susanoo stopped and disappeared entirely.

Sasuke smirked at seeing that, but before he could follow up with a critical blow, he collapsed to one knee and his Susanoo disappeared.

"We're both exhausted." Itachi said. "And it's time for me to end this."

Sasuke than performed the seals needed for one last fire-ball jutsu. Knowing it was his last, he put all of his remaining chakra in it.

Itachi did the same and he prepared to incinerate Sasuke with his own fireball.

Both of them finished at the same time. "Fire style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" The two brothers shouted.

The jutsu symbolizing the rite of passage in the Uchiha family was the last jutsu of the battle. Both of them battled for an upper hand. Sasuke activated his curse seal and managed, slowly but surely, to push back Itachi's fireball straight into him.

Sasuke immediately collapsed to the ground. With blurred vision, Sasuke looked over at Itachi and began crawling to him.

Itachi was severely burned and was now wishing to die. "So you managed to beat me with that Cursed Seal of Orochimaru."

Sasuke fell right next to Itachi. "I did what was absolutely necessary, even if I had to lose some of my soul."

"Was that to kill me or to save your friends?"

"Both." Sasuke murmured. Exhaustion was taking a hold of him and his world was going dark.

"Figures, but when you fight Pein, prepare for a far harder fight then this one little brother."

And with that Itachi passed on to the next world. Sasuke passed out immediately after that.

Naruto had traveled for several days. He had boarded a train and had ridden that for a while before jumping out in a small town just a few miles from Mt. Hrothgar. The mountain towered over all of Iwa and the other great nations. Naruto had studied the map again and realized that the top was where he needed to go. He swung by a shop and picked up cold weather gear for the accent.

After another day of travel, Naruto made it to the base of the mountain. At the base was a small village. When he approached it, every villager dropped everything and went inside. 'It's like I got the plague.' Naruto thought.

One villager, a young boy stopped and stared at Naruto in amazement. Before Naruto could even say hello, one man grabbed the boy and directed him inside.

"Wait. Could I buy some supplies?" Naruto asked.

"No, if you don't have any turn back." The man shot back.

Naruto continued on anyway. Just as he reached his first major obstacle, a sheer cliff nearly 300 feet tall, did he realize for some reason his chakra didn't work again. A vague memory stirred up in his mind. He remembered a paper he read a long time ago saying that chakra stopped working after traveling westward enough.

Ignoring this, Naruto took a running start and began scaling the cliff.

Hours later, Naruto had conquered several cliffs, canyons, hills, and dozens of other obstacles. Reaching another summit, he collapsed on the crest, unable to go on. Exhaustion was overtaking Naruto and a blizzard had destroyed any visibility. Naruto couldn't even see his hands and he was nearing the end. 'This isn't too bad. Up here on the mountain, it's beautiful.' Naruto thought. 'Looks like I won't make it mom, dad.'

Naruto rolled over onto his back and glimpsed ahead. Squinting, Naruto noticed a light in the snow. Energy stormed back into him, rolling back over, Naruto crawled over to the light. The light slowly revealed a building hiding in the snow. Naruto fought to his feet even has his body tried to collapse onto itself and he pushed open the door and walked into his own destiny.


	12. Chapter 12

By the way there are new weapons in Naruto's universe. They're going to be like guns, but they fire chakra and the effects change with a person's chakra type. I can't think of any good names, but once I do I'll let you know. Also there is other technology like phones and trains.

Naruto stumbled through the doors of the building. Warmth flooded his body even as he staggered forward. Looking forward through blurred vision, Naruto saw a bald man in red robes sitting on top of a throne.

"Ra's Akuma?" Naruto called out.

Suddenly, Naruto heard the doors behind him slam shut. Spinning around, Naruto saw a man dressed in black close and lock the doors. Several other men stepped forth from the shadows, encircling Naruto. All of them began brandishing swords, daggers, crossbows, and guns.

"Wait." Nazo stepped out of the shadows. Immediately all of the men froze and melted back into the shadows.

Ra's Akuma began speaking in a language Naruto didn't even understand, but Nazo was there to translate for Naruto. "What are you seeking?" Nazo asked.

Naruto was still numb from his climb and he found it difficult to speak. "I seek the means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey on the fearful." Naruto then reached into his pocket and handed Nazo the crystal he had retrieved. Nazo held it up to the light and inspected it.

Ra's Akuma spoke again and again Nazo translated. "To manipulate the fears of others, you must first master your own. Are you ready to begin?"

Naruto shook with exhaustion. "I… I can barely stand. "

"Death does not wait for you to be ready." Nazo kicked Naruto right to the floor. "Death is not considerate or fair. Nazo kicked Naruto in the ribs. "And make no mistake. Here you'll face death." Nazo aimed a kick for Naruto's neck. But Naruto blocked it right before it could connect.

Naruto stood up and, still shaking, got into a martial arts stance. Nazo lunged forward and Naruto countered with blocks, kicks, and punches. Going on the offensive himself, Naruto aimed for Nazo's head. Nazo grabbed his arm and forced Naruto onto his knees with a simple twist.

"You are remarkably skilled. But…" Nazo head butted Naruto and kneed him in the groin. "…this is not a dance."

Naruto crumbled to the floor and laid there, defeated.

Nazo crouched down next to Naruto. "And you are afraid, but not of me."

Nazo stood up. "Tell us, Mr. Katsuo, what do you fear?"

Naruto didn't respond. He slipped into unconscious from exhaustion and the beating he had just received.

12 years ago.

Naruto was back at the inn in Iwa on route 192, still trembling from the roaring from the dragons. Naruto heard a knock on his door. "Hey kid, are you alright? Open up?" Naruto slowly stood up and answered the door. Behind the door was a man with sandy hair and a women with blonde hair. Both of them had a concerned look on their faces.

"Are you alright? You sound sick." The women said.

"Yeah I'm alright." Naruto responded.

"Are you sure? You look pale. Do you need anything?"

"I'm fine." Naruto said hotly. He was starting to get annoyed.

The man looked at Naruto intensely. "What's our name? And where are your parents?"

"I'm Naruto. What are your names?"

"I'm Saburo Katsuo. This is my wife Akemi. So where are your parents?"

Naruto shrugged. "Don't know. I never met them."

"Are you traveling with family? Friends? You can't be alone out here." Akemi said.

"No, I'm just traveling, trying to figure something out." Naruto replied.

"You have to be staying with someone. You're just a kid. Is there an orphanage around?" Akemi said.

"I'm not a kid. I'm thirteen." Naruto shot back. "And I don't need a frickin orphanage to take care of me."

Saburo sensed Naruto's attitude. "My wife didn't mean anything by it. Where are you from? Do you need any help?"

Naruto's face darkened. "I'm from Konoha, but I'm not going back there ever again. And I don't need anybody's help. Not anymore."

Saburo held up his hands. "I didn't mean any offense by it. If you want we can leave."

"Please." Naruto said. They were really beginning to get on his nerves.

"Not so fast. You need to eat and were going down for dinner and you're coming with us." Akemi said.

"I'm not hungry." Naruto said.

"Yes you are. Now come on." Akemi grabbed Naruto's hand and dragged him down stairs. The waitress from earlier spied Naruto and walked over.

"Glad to see you found your parents. Now what do you want to eat." The waitress asked.

Before Naruto could say that there not his parents. Akemi said. "Could you get him some soup? His stomach was a little upset earlier."

"Yeah no problem." The waitress hurried off.

Naruto was a little annoyed. "What was that? I can order for myself."

"Of course you can, but you don't need to worry about it."

Naruto was a little annoyed, but deep down he was a little happy that someone took the time to do that for him.

Naruto ate his soup quickly and jumped up and began walking toward the stairs.

Saburo grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. "Not so fast. Stick around for a little bit. Sit and chat. You know."

Naruto shook out of Saburo's grip. "I don't feel like talking right now."

"Sit. There's something we want to talk to you about. It's very important." Akemi insisted.

Naruto scowled. "Fine, but make it quick will ya." Naruto sat down and began tapping his foot impatiently.

"Now, I want to ask you, what do you plan on doing in the future?" Saburo asked.

Naruto stared at him, bewildered that a stranger would even ask that. "I haven't really given it any thought. I guess whatever odd jobs I come across."

"I hope by 'odd jobs' you don't mean crime. I can see it in your eyes. You're not a criminal." Saburo said. "You need a real future, a real job. A kid can't survive out there for long without one."

"I didn't mean crime. I meant whatever jobs come by later."

Akemi pursed her lips. "That's no way to live your life. What about when you want to start a family? Or settle down somewhere? You can't survive on random jobs and live a satisfying life." Akemi said.

"My wife is right. What you need is a skill. Or maybe get an education and we are the people that can help you with that."

Naruto looked at both of them with a strange look in his eyes. "Why do you care so much? You don't know me and I don't know you. So why are you trying to help me?" Naruto blurted out.

"My wife and I are considered… charitable back where were from. We do our best to help people and you need a lot of help. Your thirteen and alone. You have very little money and you don't have a clue about what to do in the future. You need help and we're willing to give it to you with no strings attached." Saburo said.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a ninja and I can take care of myself."

It was Saburo's time to roll his eyes. "Who is going to hire a young, inexperienced ninja?"

Akemi looked at Naruto with pity. "I understand how hard a ninja's life is. My brother was a ninja and after several years, he left the service a broken man. This isn't the life you want and we can give you a better one, a far better one."

Naruto shook his head. "You don't understand what I've been through. I can't just stop being a ninja; I'm too far down this path."

"Who said you had to stop being a ninja? All I want you to do is get an education or something that can land you a real job." Saburo said.

Naruto began to wonder if he should take up Saburo and Akemi on their offer. He admitted that he was broke and trying out a new life somewhere did sound nice, but he still had other worries. "There are people after me and there not going to stop until they find me. If I stay in one place to long they'll find me."

"Where we live, no ninja on the planet can get in." Saburo said.

"Where do you live? A fortress?" Naruto said.

Saburo laughed. "No, no, we live in Manila. It's my family's home for generations. I don't know if you're any good at history, but Manila has never been taken over by a foreign power and the oldest nation around right now. There a little anti-ninja ever since the Clan wars, which was right before the Five Great Nations, but I can get them to make an exception."

"It's a lot of fun Naruto." Akemi said. "And a lot of fine ladies there."

Naruto blushed. "Can I think about it?"

"Of course, we're not forcing this on you. Take as long as you like."

Naruto stood up from the table. "If you don't mind, I'll head to my room now."

"Don't let us keep you Naruto." Saburo said.

Naruto returned to his room and plopped on his bed. He stared at the ceiling and began wondering if he should just take off or if he should really take up their offer and try for a new life. He pondered his choices all night before eventually falling asleep.

By the time morning rolled around, Naruto had decided.

Walking downstairs he spotted Saburo and Akemi sitting at a table. "I've made my decision." Naruto announced.

"Oh, what is it?" Saburo asked.

"I'll go with you to study in Manila." Naruto said.

"You've made the best decision of your life. You won't regret it." Akemi said.

"When do we leave?" Naruto asked.

"In just an hour, there's a train station not far from here." Saburo stood up and offered Naruto his hand. "You've made a wise decision Naruto. Congratulations."

Naruto shook Saburo's hand. "Thanks. I'll pack my bags now."

A few days later Saburo, Akemi, and Naruto were on a train heading to Manila. So far Naruto was enjoying the journey. It was just like being a kid again.

Naruto looked away from the window of the train and faced Saburo. "So, where will I be staying?"

Saburo was reading a business magazine and didn't look up. "Our house. We have more than enough rooms. Plus you'll need to stick with us until you understand the city."

Just as the train was rounding a corner, Akemi jumped up and walked to the window and sat down by Naruto. "It's coming up." Akemi said. "And there it is."

The train followed a single strip of land that connected Manila to the mainland. Manila soon came into view and Naruto's breath was taken away when he saw it for the first time. The city had several towering buildings, taller than anything he had seen-even the Hokage monument. Several bridges connected the city to the mainland as well. Naruto spotted several strange vehicles on the bridges and roads.

Naruto pointed one of them out to Akemi. "What are they?"

"Those are cars. They run on chakra. We'll ride one when we get off the train." Akemi answered.

"I thought chakra didn't work here?"

"The chakra jammers only block organic chakra. You know, like humans or animals. Machines, tools, or any other inanimate objects can still work. I suppose there are ways to work around this, but so far no one has figured it out yet." Saburo answered. He also stood up to look out the window. "You can't see our house from here, but it's on the northern end of the peninsula."

"How big is the peninsula?" Naruto asked.

"The city occupies strip of land about fifty miles long and about thirty-five miles wide. Like I said before it's a big city and easy to get lost in, hell I still get lost form time to time."

Naruto stared back at the city in awe and amazement.

Several minutes later, Naruto, Akemi, and Saburo stepped of the train and walked down a flight of stairs to the streets of Manila. Saburo led them to a white car. Outside of the car, an older looking man with white hair greeted them.

"Hello Master Katsuo , Lady Akemi. How are you today?" The man shook both their hands. "And who is this?"

"Tadashi, this is Naruto. Naruto this is Tadashi, he's our butler." Saburo explained.

Tadashi extended his hand to Naruto as well. "Pleasure's all mine Naruto."

Naruto shook Tadashi's hand. "Same." 'He reminds me of old man Hokage.' Naruto thought.

"Come on. Let me help you with your bags."

Tadashi quickly stowed the bags into the car and jumped in the car and began driving them home.

Naruto's face was glued to the window, staring at the marvelous city all around him.

"Nothing quite like it, eh Naruto?" Tadashi called out from the driver's seat.

"I haven't seen anything like it."

"I'm afraid you won't be able to see much of the city today Naruto. We live toward the outskirts of the city." Saburo said. He was skimming through a medical magazine.

"Are you a medical ninja? I met the greatest one in the world a few months ago." Naruto asked.

"No, I'm not a medical ninja. I am a doctor though. I work at the hospital in Manila." Saburo said.

"Are you a ninja Naruto?" Tadashi asked. "I met a few of them when I fought in the Third Shinobi War."

"Are you a ninja?"

"No, I was a commando for a few years though. Never did learn any jutsu. I did use a lot of fancy tools and gadgets though."

"Look out Naruto, here's our house." Saburo said. "This is Katsuo Manor, one of the oldest buildings in Manila."

The car drove right up to a giant mansion. Naruto was immediately in awe of the place. It's like a giant castle. He thought.

Tadashi stepped out and opened the door for the passengers. Naruto slowly got out and walked up the stairs and to the front door.

Saburo walked up and pushed open one of the giant oak doors. "After you."

Naruto stepped in the house and once again his jaw dropped in amazement. Inside the house was the most beautiful room he had ever seen. Tall walls with priceless paintings on the wall. A grand piano in the corner next to a marble fireplace.

"Impressed?" Saburo asked.

Naruto continued to stare in amazement. "You didn't tell me you were loaded."

Saburo smiled. "I wanted to see that look on your face."

Akemi and Tadashi walked right in. "Shall I show him to his room, master Saburo?"

"Sure. Just remember that dinner is in a few hours Naruto." Saburo said.

"Also try not to get lost dear. Even I get lost now and then." Akemi added.

Tadashi picked up Naruto's suitcase and began walking up the steps. "I'll show you to your room, master Naruto."

"I can carry that if you want?"

"No, no. Besides, this is how I get my exercise in my old age."

Naruto smiled. "So why are you calling me master Naruto?"

"Oh don't feel so special. I call all guests master. Here we are." Tadashi motioned to a door. "In here please."

Once again, Naruto was blown away by the bedroom. Every single piece of furniture was beautifully hand carved it seemed.

Tadashi set his bags at the foot of the bed. "Do you need anything? A glass of water? A sandwich? A map of the house?"

"Do you have maps for the house?"

"No, but you'll probably get lost once or twice in here." Tadashi said. "If you don't need anything, I shall leave you in peace."

Tadashi departed and Naruto was left alone. Naruto looked around his room. 'I guess I'll just take a nap.' He thought.

Several hours later, Naruto made his way down to the dining room. Unsurprisingly, this room was stunningly beautiful.

Saburo, Akemi, Tadashi, and two other women Naruto didn't know, one older around Akemi's age and one around Naruto's age.

Akemi smiled at Naruto. "We were staring to think you were lost."

The younger girl laughed. "Yeah, did you smell your way to the food?"

"Actually I was looking for the bathroom."

"Naruto this Hana, a servant for us like Tadashi, and this is her daughter, Yasu." Akemi explained. "She'll be going to school with you, so you better treat her right."

"Pleased to meet you."

"Same." Yasu said.

"So Naruto what's your favorite food?" Saburo asked.

"Ramen. I love ramen, like, a lot."

Yasu snickered. "You're obviously a health nut."

"What? You got a problem with ramen? Take it up with god, because that's who made it." Naruto shot back.

"Well we don't have ramen tonight, but we do have an excellent chicken dish. Help yourself to that, you won't be disappointed." Saburo said.

Naruto quickly scarfed down his meal almost immediately. 'This is pretty good.' He thought.

"You know, most people savor there meal, and not eat it before they can taste it." Yasu said.

Naruto gulped down the rest of his meal. "Well it was really good and I didn't want it to get cold."

"Hey Yasu, why don't you show Naruto around the grounds while there's still daylight?" Akemi suggested.

Yasu shrugged. "Alright." She grabbed Naruto and raced out the house before Naruto could protest.

"There good kids, aren't they Hana?" Saburo asked. "By the way, there's something we've been needing to ask you."

"Come on, before it gets dark." Yasu said impatiently.

Naruto nearly had to sprint to keep up with Yasu. "So, any cool spots around here?"

"You'll see."

Naruto and Yasu continued to walk through the grounds. "Over there, wait till you get to the hill." Yasu said walking steadily up the hill.

"Hey, last one up is a rotten egg." Naruto said, before dashing ahead.

Yasu protested before dashing after Naruto. Naruto reached the hill first. Glancing back, he realized that Yasu disappeared. "Yasu." He called out.

"Down here." She shouted.

Naruto glanced around. He soon discovered a small crevice on the hill. "Why are you down there?"

"We were supposed to come down." Yasu called back. "Climb on down."

Naruto slipped down the crevice. "So, now what do we do?"

"I'm showing you my favorite spot here. We just got to be patient."

Naruto followed Yasu into the cave. Yasu passed him a flash light. "Don't wander off or you'll get lost down here."

Naruto accepted the flashlight and turned it on. "Ladies first."

Yasu led Naruto into the cave for a few minutes, talking about where they were from. Naruto learned that Yasu was born here and her mother was form Iwagakure and worked as a maid for Saburo and Akemi.

They eventually found themselves in an opening in the cave. Some light shone through a gap in the ceiling, revealing a large white crystal in the middle of the room.

"This is what you wanted to show me?" Naruto asked.

"Kind of, just watch." Yasu responded.

After several moments of waiting, the light slowly vanished, but the light seemed to concentrate on the crystal. The crystal began giving off more light and different colors. The cave went from a dark, damp cave, to a bright, vibrant cave.

"This is amazing!" Naruto shouted.

Yasu beamed. "I know, right."

The light soon began to vanish just as fast as it appeared. "Come on. Let's get back." Yasu suggested.

Naruto was now back in the present, laying in a hospital bed as his body recovered from the blizzard he had braved a few hours ago.

"So it seems you found everything you could have ever dreamed, parents, friends, money, and a new purpose. A chance to begin again, something Manila has advertised for years." Nazo said.

"Yeah, they adopted me after about a year of living with them. They were the best, far better than my real parents." Naruto said.

"I had one of our doctors perform a check-up while you were sleeping. Your completely healthy, just exhausted. One thing he noticed is that you must have stopped using chakra around that time."

"I trained with chakra for a few years after moving to Manila, but eventually I moved on from that and stopped training all together. Naruto explained. "How did you know that I stopped using chakra?"

"A scientist discovered that the chakra network in bodies dissolved muscles and weakens the body overall. Brittle bones and weaker bodies are a direct resort of using chakra overtime. After years of use, the chakra either begins to dissolve your tissue in our body or the person using chakra is forced to use chakra for any task. It takes several years of constant use, but it looks like you didn't use your chakra for long." Nazo explained. "Now what caused you to walk away from your former life?"

Six years had passed since Naruto had left the ninja world for Manila. After a few months of living with Saburo and Akemi Katsuo they officially adopted him. Gone was Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto Katsuo was born from the ashes of Naruto's old life.

Naruto had learned a lot about the Katsuo's. His new family owned the one of the largest companies in the world, Katsuo Enterprise. The Katsuo family was one of the richest, most prestigious families in the world, giving billions to charity and working on any project built to assist the people of Manila and the world.

Saburo regularly traveled to promote sanitation and healed the sick, but most of the time he was at the hospital, offering his services to the people of Manila.

Akemi ran several organizations aimed at lifting the poor out of poverty, programs such as home building, equal rights, enacting child labor laws, and a host of other programs.

Naruto also pitched in whenever he could. However, he had changed from a clueless, hyper active kid, to an intelligent, good natured young man.

Gone were his days as a ninja, he had moved on and joined his friend Yasu in law school. Together they had made a dream to clean out the corruption in Manila's government and the business world.

Oh, and also the increasing strength of the criminal underworld, which had started to run rampant recently.

But happy days were ahead for Naruto. Today was a holiday for Manila, Victory Day, the day Manila defeated Kirigakure and made themselves a known power in the world. The city held a parade and a festival in honor of the men and women who died in the conflict.

Naruto was riding the train, a train Katsuo Enterprise built not long ago, on his way to the parade and was going to meet his parents there. 'Parents' Naruto thought. 'Not long ago I couldn't have imagined ever having them.'

Naruto stepped off the train and made his way through a crowd of people cheering the parade on. Since the Katsuo's were such a prestigious family, they were allowed on the stage normally reserved for city officials and the handful of surviving veterans of the war.

Naruto took his seat next to his father. "Sorry for being a little late, dad."

"No worries. All you've missed is a couple of boring speeches, but you did miss your mother's speech."

"I'm sure I won't hear the end to that."

"It might have been better if you didn't come at all. She's gonna tan your hide son."

Naruto watched the parade go by in silence for several moments. His mom joined them soon after that. She scolded Naruto, just as Saburo predicted, but Akemi let it pass, she always let it pass.

Naruto was enjoying himself immensely. He remembered back in Konoha he'd always get shoved around when he tried to watch a parade as a kid or some adult would purposely block his view. To him it just made his life even sweeter now.

But then he saw a new parade float. Naruto began shifting uneasily in his seat. Before him, two dragon puppets danced in the street. To the standard onlooker it was just a normal dragon puppet, but to Naruto, they represented something far more diabolical.

Old memories resurfaced and suddenly Naruto wasn't in Manila, he was seven years old again and being tormented by some dragon outside.

Naruto knew he should get over this fear. That he was being weak for still quaking in fear of anything related to dragons, but Naruto couldn't stand them or this.

Leaping to his feet, he turned to his dad. "Dad, I need to go. I'll see you back at the house."

Before Saburo could even say anything, Naruto bolted out of there like lighting and made his way to an alleyway, panting and trying to get his emotions under control.

"What's wrong honey?" Akemi asked, appearing out of nowhere.

"No, it was me. Naruto volunteered to call Tadashi to pick us up." Saburo said. "A hot day like this can take a lot out of you. Right Naruto?"

Naruto nodded. He was still shaking.

"Come on Akemi, let's go call a cab."

Saburo and Akemi both let Naruto alone and walked over to the curb. Another man walked out of the ally and followed them onto the curb.

After another moment, Naruto finally got control of himself and went to join his family on the curb.

However, as he emerged from the ally way, Naruto's blood ran cold. Before him Saburo and Akemi, his mom and dad, were being held up by the man who had just passed him a moment ago.

"Wallets. Jewelry. Fast." The assailant muttered. He was brandishing a gun and a knife in the other hand. He looked gaunt and unshaven, clearly a man who hadn't eaten in days.

"Take it easy." Saburo said, trying to reason with the man. Akemi stood behind him, petrified from fright.

Saburo handed him the wallet, which he dropped to the ground by accident. "It's fine. Just take it and leave."

The mugger crouched down and picked up the wallet slowly. "I said jewelry too." He made a grab for Akemi's pearl necklace.

Saburo jumped in front of his wife. "Hey what do you think…" Bam. Saburo hit the ground.

Akemi let out a piercing shriek before she was silenced as well.

The murderer shot a glance at Naruto before fleeing.

Naruto was stunned. Slowly he walked forward to where his adoptive parents, the people who had given him everything, now lay.

He crouched down right next to his dad. Saburo's hand rose slowly to grip Naruto's hand. "Naruto." Saburo whispered. "Don't be afraid."

And with that Naruto was alone again in the world. Naruto continued to stare blankly ahead, even as police came and took him down to the police station. They handed him a cup of coffee and apologized a thousand times for not arriving in time. Soon they left him in peace even has reporters tried to get a shot of him through the police office.

An officer approached him holding his father's coat. "Is this your father's?" The officer asked.

The cop draped it around Naruto's shoulders. He was an older officer around Saburo's age.

Naruto read his name tag. Masao Hiro.

"Hey. It's going to be okay."

"Hiro." The police commissioner arrived in the room.

Hiro took his leave and the commissioner approached Naruto. "Hey good news, we got him son."

Several days later, Naruto found himself at his parent's funeral. Everything had happened in a whirlwind, Tadashi had organized the funeral and Yasu tried to comfort Naruto, but all Naruto could do is stare off into space.

Nearly everyone one was in mourning in the city. The newspaper, Manila Times, had the denounced the attack as one of the most barbaric attacks in the city's history. Dozens of charity organizations Saburo and Akemi had funded over the years all sent him condolence, wishing the best for him. Even Mr. Hayato, the CEO of Katsuo Enterprise, offered his condolences. He promised to watch the company for him and that it would always be there for him whenever.

Naruto had barely said a word, most respected that. Yasu tried to get him to talk, but she gave up and told him to call her when she needed him.

Now Naruto was staring out his window off into the distance.

Tadashi walked into his room slowly. "I've prepared a little supper." Tadashi said.

Naruto said nothing. He had missed several meals already.

Tadashi turned to leave. "Very well."

"Tadashi." Naruto whispered.

"Yes Master Katsuo."

"It was my fault Tadashi. They followed me-."

"No, no, no." Tadashi immediately objected, he came around to where Naruto was sitting and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "It was him and him alone. Not you. Do you understand?"

Naruto's face teared up. "I miss them. I miss them so much."

"So do I Master Katsuo. So do I."


	13. Chapter 13

The next morning, Naruto and Nazo stood on the balcony of the fort. Naruto had just finished retelling his story of his parent's death and now they stood staring down to the world in silence. The cold air blew gently through the clear blue sky and Naruto stood enjoying the view of the mountain.

After several moments of silence, Nazo shattered the silence. "Do you still feel responsible for their death?" He asked.

"My anger outweighs by guilt." Naruto replied.

Nazo nodded. "Then come. Let us begin your training, but first, you must conquer your fear."

Nazo led Naruto through the fort. "What do you mean conquer my fear?"

"You will so learn that fear limits you. It will slow you down and eventually kill you. Here we are." Nazo led Naruto to a storage room and opened it up. Inside the room were several mundane tools.

Nazo grabbed two pairs of skis. "Here you are." He said as he handed him one pair.

Nazo then led him to an armory room. This one had simple weapons. Knives, staffs, and several swords of all lengths. Nazo picked up two short swords and after examining both of them, he handed one to Naruto. It was a simple short sword nothing fancy to it. He then grabbed a small plain brown bag.

"Now follow me." Nazo commanded.

Nazo then led him outside the fort and down a small footpath with snow on both sides of the path. The path soon entered a forest and tall pine trees soon surrounded them and after several minutes of following the path, Nazo veered off and into the pine forest. "Not much farther now." He called out.

Naruto followed him and Nazo then led him to sloped clearing. Not far away was a massive pile of snow.

"Now." Nazo began as he dropped his own pair of skis down onto the snow. "This path will take you down the mountain. It's about a thirty minute journey on skis. I want you to reach the bottom."

Naruto was a little confused. "This is just skiing. How will this help me get over any fears I have?"

Nazo smiled. "You shall see. I'll give you a head start. Better get going if you want to make it back before lunch."

Naruto shrugged and popped into his skis. 'How hard can this be?' He thought. Naruto quickly moved down the mountain expertly dodging trees and rocks before coming down to small clearing in the wood.

'This is a joke.' He thought angrily.

All of a sudden he heard a great booming noise, like thunder. He soon heard a great groaning sound. "What the hell is that?" Naruto said. He then noticed the snow seemed to be shifting higher up on the mountain.

Then his jaw dropped and Naruto spun around and began racing frantically down the slope. Rushing forward to meet him was Nazo and behind him a wall of snow raced down the mountain.

That crazy bastard had created an avalanche to chase them down.

Naruto ducked, weaved, and zipped around the trees. His blood began to race as he moved in an effort to keep in front of the advancing wall of snow.

'Wait, where's Nazo.' He thought.

All of a sudden, something told Naruto to duck. Naruto ducked and a sword swiped right through the air where his head had been seconds ago. Naruto then saw Nazo brandishing a sword and also moving around the trees. "Always mind your surroundings!" He shouted over the roar of the avalanche.

Naruto fumbled for his own sword tucked underneath his belt to defend himself against Nazo's attacks. In his fumbling attempts to free his sword, Naruto scraped the sides of the tree and nearly was buried alive beneath the mountain of snow.

Naruto soon felt like he was juggling dodging trees, outrunning the avalanche, dodging Nazo, and trying to free his body from the horror of realizing he might die here.

Nazo once again charged him again. This time, Naruto freed his sword and deflected Nazo's attacks.

Naruto then prepared to go on the offensive and began skiing toward Nazo, but before he could strike him, Nazo veered off to the sides and vanished into the forest.

Naruto prepared to go after him and then he realized that a giant chasm was before him. Naruto began to panic as he realized that he couldn't slow down and he couldn't veer off to the sides anymore. Naruto swallowed the lump he felt in his throat and tried to gather speed in an attempt to jump the gap.

Naruto bent his knees and aimed for a slightly higher point on the cliff. He prayed that he could make the jump.

Finally, as Naruto's heart was racing; Naruto went off the jump and began rocketing towards the other side. Naruto stretched out his hands and managed to grab the lower lip of the cliff. His skis snapped off and spiraled down into the abyss.

Naruto glanced down and immediately wished he hadn't. With his head spinning, Naruto began climbing out of the abyss.

Naruto reached the lip and climbed over and rolled over on his side. Panting hard, Naruto didn't notice Nazo skied right next to him.

"Come on. Don't think it's over now." Nazo said. He quickly raised his sword and tried to bring it down onto Naruto's chest. Naruto scrambled out of the way and reached for his own sword, but then watched in horror as Nazo kicked it over the edge.

"Think, boy, think." Nazo commanded. Nazo stabbed forward at Naruto. Naruto swiped the sword out of the way and reached behind him with his spare hand.

He quickly picked up a loose rock and began trying to smash the sword out of Nazo's hands.

Naruto struggled to disarm Nazo but even after suffering a few slashes, Naruto flipped the blade out of Nazo's hands.

Nazo didn't miss a beat though. Nazo immediately began attacking Naruto with his fists. Nazo quickly targeted Naruto's joints and after a few minutes, Naruto lay on the floor gasping for breath with several cuts and nasty looking bruises forming on his body.

Nazo placed his foot on top of Naruto's battered body. "I told you; here you will find no mercy. Had I had been a true enemy, you'd be dead. Now," Nazo lifted his foot off Naruto and began walking through the snow. "You'd better hurry up and follow, the path to home is difficult to find."

Naruto groaned and lifted himself up out of the snow and began dragging himself towards Nazo. 'That was the most intense training I've ever done.' He thought.

Nazo paused and turned back and, as if reading his mind, said. "And it will only get harder from here Naruto."

Hundreds of miles away, Sasuke slowly came to in a hospital just outside Kumo. His head was spinning and his vision was blurry. He still glanced around the room and noticed through the haze a girl with pink hair slumped over in a chair asleep.

"Sakura," He called out. "Hey Sakura."

Sakura jolted and woke up with a start. "Sasuke. Your awake?" Sakura quickly began checking Sasuke's vitals.

"How long have I been out?" Sasuke said. He moved his body slightly and heard it creek and groan. Several sharp pains shot up his body and he let out a groan.

"About three weeks. Everyone is okay though." Sakura replied hesitantly.

Sasuke picked up Sakura's tone. "Did something happen? Is Kakashi and Tenzo okay?" Sasuke asked intently.

"No, their fine, but, oh god Sasuke, Hinata and Lee died fighting Pein." Sakura said. Tears began forming and Sakura began to sob. "They just died last week."

Sasuke felt a knot in his stomach. "Has anyone else died?" Sasuke said quietly.

Sakura wiped her tears out of her eyes. "No, but Shino and Choji are in critical condition. They've been moved to Konoha General."

"Where are we now?"

"Were just outside Iwagakure, we moved you here when it looked like Kumogakure would fall again." Sakura said.

"Did it?" Sasuke asked.

"No, we beat them back. That was the same battle Hinata and Lee perished and Shino and Choji got wounded." Sakura said.

A knock on the door cut off Sasuke before he could ask another question. Kakashi entered, he didn't look surprised to see Sasuke finally up. 'Then again, he never looks surprised.' Sasuke thought.

"Yo." Kakashi saluted. "It's good to see you up Sasuke. Sakura, you should get some rest, you look dead on your feet."

Sakura nodded sluggishly. "Yeah, I know." She stood from her seat. "I'll see you around Sasuke, Kakashi." Sakura quickly exited the room.

Kakashi looked up and down at Sasuke. "So I take it you heard about Hinata and Lee?"

Sasuke nodded. "Sakura told me."

"Choji and Shino too?"

"Yeah." Silence filled the room after that. "So what else has happened?"

"Besides some of the most bloodiest battles since the Third Great Shinobi War? A lot." Kakashi reached in his pocket and pulled out a familiar book. "This war is bleeding all of the nation's dry, but…" Kakashi flipped a page of his book.

"But what?" Sasuke asked annoyed that he was reading his smutty book and talking to him.

"We launched a major operation earlier today. Hopefully in a few days, Kisame will be dead."

"Have we made any progress in eliminating the Akatsuki?" Sasuke was dreading the answer.

"No, your fight with Itachi was the last victory we've had. You've actually become a celebrity after winning the fight. By the way, how does it feel?" Kakashi asked.

"Not what I thought it would feel. Then again I went into a coma right after the fight." Sasuke said dryly. "But what's are next move? Is this alliance thing real? Or has it dissolved into a free for all?"

"It's still on. Dozens of new problems keep popping up though. Here, you better see it for yourself." Kakashi handed him a square device. It was covered with several seals. After a few seconds of staring blankly at it, the device came to life and Sasuke began seeing several figures moving across the screen.

"What am I looking at?" Sasuke asked.

"A new enemy combatant, you remember Zetsu?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes."

"Well it turns out he can clone himself in the thousands. He's been throwing these clones at our lines for days."

"And we haven't taken out a single Akatsuki since Itachi?"

"No. Like I said were close to collapsing." Kakashi said ominously. "Several other countries have joined the Alliance though."

"Who?"

"Manila, the Land of Iron, and several of the minor nations." Kakashi listed the more prominent nations.

"I thought Manila and the Samurai were neutral?"

"They were, but Manila has poured in resources and the Samurai have thrown themselves head first into the war." Kakashi replied.

"Everything has changed." Sasuke threw his covers off and slowly stood up. Sasuke winched when he stood up again. Every bone groaned in his body.

"Are you sure you should be standing?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm not one to lie around all day."

"Not much of a choice around here," Kakashi said. "Come on, the Hokage wanted to talk to us."

"She's here?" Sasuke asked surprised.

"No, new tool from Manila, sort of like how the Akatsuki are communicating." Kakashi replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal device covered in seals. He set in down at the base of Sasuke's bed and flicked it on. A sharp beep emitted from the device and several seconds later, Tsunade popped up out of the device.

"It's good to see you awake, Sasuke." Tsunade said. She looked older, more stressed out.

'Probably from the war.' Sasuke thought. "What's happening right now, Tsunade?"

"A lot of damn killing and Pein's still running wild with the tailed beast." Tsunade said angrily.

"Any news on Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"No, it seems he's sitting this one out. Nobody has heard anything from him, not even the other countries." Tsunade said.

"At least he'll be safe from Pein." Sasuke said.

"True, but if he wants to come back it will be harder to persuade the council to accept him back." Tsunade shook her head. "Right now there's nothing we can do, but I need you back on your feet."

"I can be ready whenever." Sasuke said.

"No, only when Sakura clears you will you be able to join back in." Tsunade said sternly. She turned toward Kakashi. "Kakashi, make sure he doesn't do anything foolish to impede his recovery time and also let him know what High Command has planned for Pein."

"Yes ma'am." Kakashi said.

"Good. Get better Sasuke."

The transmission cut out and Sasuke and Kakashi were left alone.

Sasuke immediately turned towards Kakashi. "So what's this plan?"

"You remember your fight with Itachi? Remember how he used the Seven-Tails?"

"I'll never forget that fight. It's been burned into my mind."

"Well here's the plan." Kakashi said.


	14. Chapter 14

Sasuke rode the elevator down with Kakashi and two other samurai. It had been several weeks since Sasuke woke up in the hospital and he was already on the move. Kakashi and Sasuke had been escorted to base in the Land of Iron by several samurai. The base was in the middle of a hallowed out mountain, which according to the samurai, was a base to house tailed beast if they were ever captured. So far the plan Kakashi had mentioned last week still had plenty of holes and today's trip to the center of the mountain should explain everything.

The lift slowed to a stop and the four soldiers exited the lift. Sasuke immediately noticed several seals on support beams. He also realized that his chakra had become useless.

"Kakashi, why can't I use chakra?" Sasuke asked.

"Security measures." One of the samurai answered.

Kakashi had pulled out his book and began reading it. "It's also a way to neutralize any ninja that tries to infiltrate. For the soldiers here, it's easier to block all chakra and use guards that can fight without chakra than to hire or train ninja."

"It's also to contain any tailed beast that is housed here. Much like this one is." A samurai said.

The corridor soon opened up and the group found themselves on a balcony. Before them, the Seven-Tailed beast lay chained to several massive pillars of steel. Even from this distance Sasuke could make out several seals around the area containing the beast.

"This is it Sasuke, this is the operation that will win the war." Kakashi said.

"So were going to draw Pein out with the Seven-Tails as bait?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, with your Sharigan you ought to be able to control the tailed beast. You'll draw Pein out and the Alliance will have an army waiting to ambush Pein. We take out Pein, the Akatsuki lose their leader and the means to control their tailed beast effectively." Kakashi explained.

"Why didn't you try to control it?"

"I did, but my eye doesn't have the same strength as yours." Kakashi replied.

"When can I try it?" Sasuke asked.

"Right now," One of the samurai said. "We just need the control room to deactivate the seals. We'll keep a few seals around that will drain the strength of the beast before you get the hang of it."

"Let's begin." Sasuke said.

At the same time, Naruto continued his training. It had been over a month since he started. One month of throwing caution to the wind and doing some of the most life-threatening training ever. In Konoha and many other villages, the shinobi may have created rules to prevent themselves from injuring or killing one of their comrades while training. Here the training couldn't be considered training unless there was some kind of life threatening training. So instead of training with wooden swords, Naruto used real blades for every fight. Every spar was filled with attacks targeting any point that could do the most damage whether it be the heart, kidneys, head, neck or whatever.

After his first month here of dodging death, Nazo told him it was to finally begin his true training. The two of them stood on the same balcony a month before.

Nazo put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Come."

Nazo led Naruto down several flights of stairs. Around them, dozens of ninja spared, exercised, meditated, or some different kind of training.

Nazo turned around to face Naruto. "You have learned to bury your guilt with anger. I will teach you to confront it and to face the truth." Nazo pointed to several ninja sparring. It was one ninja against seven other ninja.

"You know how to fight six men," Nazo said. "We will teach you how to engage six-hundred."

Nazo began showing him several new techniques, new ways to counter, block, twist, throw, grab, and dozens of other moves to fight entire gangs of enemies. Nazo then had Naruto fight nearly a dozen other ninja by himself. After several moments, Naruto lay on the floor, bloodied and bruised, but he forced himself to keep fighting.

After a couple hour of this, Nazo led him away from the ring and into the darker parts of the fort.

"You know how to disappear; we will teach you how to become truly invisible." Nazo said.

"Invisible?" Naruto asked confused.

"You can come out now." Nazo called out.

Suddenly, two ninja dressed head to toe in black, dropped from the ceiling. Naruto recoiled in shock, not many people could sneak up on him and here were two people who had done it effortlessly.

Nazo took off in the opposite direction. "Ninja understand that invisibility is simply a matter of patience-" Nazo reached out to a pillar standing in the dark and pulled out another ninja hiding upside down facing them. Nazo showed Naruto how he was holding on; the ninja's gloves had metal spikes that had been driven into the wooden pillar and that had been holding him to the pillar. "-and agility."

Nazo then had Naruto stand on several wooden pillars. Below him was a pit filled with sharpened sticks. Nazo motioned for two other ninja to come forward. Both of them carried heavy bamboo sticks.

Nazo then turned towards Naruto. "Dodge." He said simply.

Immediately, the other ninja began lashing out at Naruto with their bamboo sticks and tried to knock him down into the pit.

Naruto once again began ducking and trying to deflect the staffs. Naruto let out a groan for each blow that connected with him. Once he was knocked down and just barely managed to grab onto the pillars before plummeting down into the pit. Naruto looked up at Nazo. Nazo nodded his head, acknowledging Naruto.

After several failed attempts to knock Naruto off, Nazo called the ninja beating Naruto off. Nazo then led him to the main armory of the fort. Blades of all kinds lined the walls, but what caught Naruto's eye was the massive collection of seals. Nearly thousands of seals sat on walls or on tables.

Nazo noticed Naruto's fixed stare at the nearly countless amounts of seals. "Aw, you noticed the seals. They were all made by Ra's Akuma himself."

Naruto stared in shock. "But there are thousands of them. How has he made so many?" Naruto hadn't seen Ra's Akuma very often, but he knew the man was at least fifty year's old.

"Ra's Akuma has extended his life beyond the normal capabilities of an average human life. What you see here is six-hundred years of work." Nazo replied.

"That's impossible," Naruto stated. "True immortality is unheard of."

"Ra's Akuma is immortal, his methods are supernatural, and his teachings have inspired millions before either of us. How he has done it is a mystery." Nazo said. "But I didn't come down here to show you these seals or weapons. I came here for this." Nazo reached out and grabbed a small bowl. He scooped up some black powder from the bowl and threw it right at Naruto's feet.

The powder exploded at Naruto's feet, light shot out from the explosion momentarily blinding him and causing him to flinch and leap backwards. Smoke from the explosive rose up and clouded his vision for a few seconds.

"Our fighting style employs explosive powders to fight our enemies." Nazo said.

"As weapons?" Naruto asked confused.

"Well, no, as a distraction," Nazo explained. "Theatricality and deception are powerful agents. You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponents."

Naruto scooped up a handful of the powder and threw it down at his feet. This time he didn't flinch.

Naruto handed back the powder. "What about seals?" Naruto asked.

Nazo pulled open a drawer and plucked several seals for the drawer. He motioned for Naruto to inspect the seals. "These seals can muffle slight sounds, like footsteps. Louder noises will be picked up by our opponents." Nazo said.

"What about these?"

"This seal can mimic certain sounds. Some vary, but this type of seal mimics footsteps. You can use them to lure enemies into traps, or use them to trick them into going the wrong way. But," Nazo set the seals down. "Right now you'll practice fighting with the powder and some simple flash bangs."

Nazo then led him lower into the base; soon it was almost too dark to see. Several support beams were propped up here and a few candles gave Naruto some light to see by. Nazo handed Naruto a small blade, a pouch full of explosive powder, and three flash bangs. "There are three other ninja hiding in the darkness, find them, but they will try and kill you if you discover them Naruto." Nazo said. He waved his arms in the darkness. "Begin."

Naruto immediately melted into the darkness. He silently moved among the rafter and taking every step to eliminate any noise. 'They probably know where I'm at.' Naruto thought.

Naruto's eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. Had it been a few years ago or any other place in the world, all Naruto would have to do is concentrate chakra in his eyes and he'd be able to see crystal clear.

Suddenly, a hand shot out from the darkness and made a grab at Naruto's throat. Naruto's hands shot up like lightning to block the grab. Naruto then swatted the hand away and grabbed the attacker's arm and pinned it to a rafter.

Undeterred, the unseen enemy flicked his hand a switchblade appeared in his hand. He then lunged forward at Naruto's arm, which was still pinning him. Naruto shifted out of the way and with his spare hand grabbed an explosive powder charge and threw it right next to his assailants face.

The room lighted up for a second and the enemy flinched and Naruto's elbow smashed right into his face. His head flipped backwards and smashed into the wooden rafter and he crumbled to the floor unconscious.

'One down.' Naruto thought. He searched his downed opponent and found several feet of wire and Naruto quickly tied him to a pole.

It didn't take long for Naruto to track down the other two ninja. Once he was down tying the last one up, Nazo stepped out of the shadows. "Excellent, faster than most of the trainees here." Nazo said. "But these were lower tier ninja; they're not the cream of the crop. And always remember this; there is always someone better than you out there and there training to fight you."

"And I'll be ready for that person." Naruto said.

"We'll see. For now one more spar for the day." Nazo said.

"With who?"

"With me!" Nazo unsheathed a sword and lunged straight at Naruto. Naruto side stepped the sword and tried to draw his own sword, but Nazo grabbed Naruto's hand and twisted the blade out of his hand and flipped Naruto on his back.

Naruto shot his feet out and Nazo leaped backwards to dodge him. Naruto rolled into the shadows and quickly, but silently, moved away from Nazo.

"Very good." Nazo called out.

Suddenly a flash bang fell from the ceiling and exploded at Nazo's feet as Naruto dropped from the ceiling and swung his arm for Nazo's head.

Nazo didn't even flinch from the noise or the explosion and blocked Naruto's arm and brought his elbow straight into Naruto's chin. Naruto fell backwards and Nazo stabbed down with his blade, aiming for Naruto's head.

Naruto, although dazed, snapped back and jerked his head just in time to dodge Nazo's attack. However, he didn't see Nazo's hand fly out and grabbed him by the throat.

Nazo looked bored. "One minute and forty-six seconds. That is how long it would take for me to kill you." Nazo said. "And I could have finished you earlier had I decided to not throw a knife at you as you scrambled up the rafters."

Nazo let go of Naruto's throat. Naruto gasped for breath without the vice grip from Nazo. "Always mind your surroundings, Naruto. From above, below, the sides, behind, front, always be ready and prepared." Nazo instructed. "Now, get some rest."

The Days went by, but each day Sasuke drilled his eyes to control the Seven-Tails. The strain of fighting to control the Seven-Tails was eroding Sasuke's will. Each time he used his eyes to control the beast; a tug of war broke out between the two.

'After all these years my eyes still can't overcome Itachi's.' Sasuke thought bitterly.

The Seven-Tails was still chained in the Samurai's base, but that still gave no edge in controlling it.

Sasuke knew that killing Pein with the Seven-Tails would end the war. Yesterday Kakashi informed him that Kisame had been struck down by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. That only left Pein, Tobi, Gannon, Konan, and Zetsu. Without Pein, the Akatsuki would be leaderless and would lose their ability to control the other seven tailed beast.

Hinata, Lee, and countless other people had to be avenged, and millions more needed to be saved. 'And I will be the one to do it.' Sasuke thought. He quit his break and threw himself headfirst back into his training.

"So we have reached an agreement?" Tsunade asked. She glanced around the room. Seated in this room were some of the most powerful leaders to ever grace the world. Gaara of Sunagakure, Mei of Kirigakure, Shin of Iwagakure, General Mifune of the Samurai, Oda Shotuku of Manila, and finally the newly freed and appointed Raikage, Mari.

"That the five great Nations, the Land of Iron, and the Republic of Manila will fuse together to form a perfect union? Yes, yes we will." Mari replied.

A lot had happened since escaping from the prison, but Kumo needed a strong leader and since most of her opponents were dead from the war, Kumo had appointed her without much fuss. The elders back in Kumogakure had warned her that she would be on a tight leash until she had proven herself and she was determined do silence any doubts about her loyalty to Kumo and the Alliance.

"All trade barriers will be abolished. The new super state will consist of six states and Manila will act as the capital." Shotuku said.

"Everything seems in order." Gaara said.

"Then let me be the first to congratulate us all; we have brought peace to all of our countries." Mifune declared.

"Let's not forget we still have work to finish. The Akatsuki are still a grave threat and can still fracture us." Shin said.

"We can't be all work Shin." Mei replied. "I say a toast is in order."

"I agree." Tsunade said. She pulled out several glasses and a bottle of sake.

"You would have a bottle on you Tsunade." Gaara said.

"At least she knows how to have fun." Mei shot back.

"Relax, this is a time to celebrate, not fight." Tsunade said as she poured several glasses. Gaara picked up the glasses with his sand and passed them out to the leaders.

"To a new future." Shotuku said.

"To the future." Everyone called out before downing their drink. The new nation, the United Shinobi was born.


End file.
